<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Not Quite Remembered by Phlinting</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28506675">Not Quite Remembered</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phlinting/pseuds/Phlinting'>Phlinting</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Spark of Hope and the Butterfly Effect [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Teen Wolf (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alpha Derek Hale, Alpha Stiles Stilinski, BAMF Derek Hale, BAMF Peter Hale, BAMF Sheriff Stilinski, BAMF Stiles, Canon-Typical Violence, Fix-It, Kanima Jackson Whittemore, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Spark Stiles Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski &amp; Jackson Whittemore Friendship, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:40:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>40,141</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28506675</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phlinting/pseuds/Phlinting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Finally Stiles is eighteen. Now that they're both adults Derek can't wait to start on his plan to woo his mate.</p><p>But when Stiles finally makes it home, he's different. Three years at college would change anyone—especially when they started at fifteen—but how did it turn Stiles into someone completely different?</p><p>And why does his much younger mate suddenly seem like the older one in their relationship?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Camden Lahey/Halwyn (Teen Wolf), Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Peter Hale/Sheriff Stilinski</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Spark of Hope and the Butterfly Effect [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2041633</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>533</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1031</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Stiles was pretty sure he didn't go to sleep on the nemeton, but that's definitely where he woke up. He was on his back, stretched out like a starfish, his legs and arms secured by what felt like tree vines. He stared up at the full moon and found himself suddenly questioning all of his life choices.</p>
<p>How did he think sneaking home from college early to surprise everyone without actually telling them he was coming would be such a good idea? Why hadn't he joined Lydia and their college friends on their vacation to Hawaii to celebrate their graduation? Why had he agreed to stop using telepathy when Peter had suggested Stiles would enjoy the whole college experience better without it? Why had he never told Derek he loved him?</p>
<p>And why the fuck was there a naked woman standing over him ready to plunge a ceremonial knife it into his rapidly beating heart.</p>
<p>
  <em>When is a door not a door?</em>
</p>
<p>Yeah, fuck, okay. This wasn't good.</p>
<p>Not fucking good at all.</p>
<p>
  <em>Mischief, remember.</em>
</p>
<p>"Peter?" he asked telepathically, wondering when Peter had started calling him that and desperately trying to remember how easy it was to converse with his stepdad this way several years ago.</p>
<p>
  <em>When is a door, not a door?</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Mischief, remember.</em>
</p>
<p>"Mom?"</p>
<p>"Do I look like your mother?" naked girl asked sarcastically.</p>
<p>Yeah, that was just rude.</p>
<p>
  <em>When is a door, not a door?</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>I'm sorry, baby. You need to remember.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Stiles?</em>
</p>
<p>The rush of memories into his brain was totally trippy. The memories of Void fucking terrifying.</p>
<p>
  <em>When is a door, not a door?</em>
</p>
<p>"When it's a— Look, just hang on for sec, okay?" he asked aloud.</p>
<p>"Peter?" he asked telepathically.</p>
<p>
  <em>When is a door, not a door?</em>
</p>
<p>"Oh for fuck's sake. Just give me a minute."</p>
<p>Naked girl gave him a weird look. "Who are you talking to?"</p>
<p>"Not you, obviously," he growled irritably. He switched to telepathy. "Peter?"</p>
<p>"I'm here," Peter said, sounding anxious. "Everything okay?"</p>
<p>"I could use a rescue," he said telepathically, rolling his eyes at naked girl when she started to chant in some badly butchered Latin. Seriously?</p>
<p>"A rescue?' Peter asked, already moving. "Where are you?"</p>
<p>
  <em>When is a door, not a door?</em>
</p>
<p>"I'm on the nemeton," he said, refusing to be embarrassed, "with a crazy, naked chick chanting bad Latin to the moon."</p>
<p>"You're home? You came home early?"</p>
<p>"That was the plan," Stiles said. "Um… a rescue?"</p>
<p>The roar in the distance was clearly not Peter.</p>
<p>"Derek is on his way," Peter said, sounding a little too amused for Stiles's liking. But he had more important things to deal with.</p>
<p>"Hey, so you know that part where I sent us back in time and changed everything and all that?"</p>
<p>"Yes?" Peter answered slowly, making the word sound like a question.</p>
<p>
  <em>When is a door, not a door?</em>
</p>
<p>"Shut up, Void. I'll deal with you in a minute."</p>
<p>"Void? The nogitsune?" Peter asked, sounding sufficiently freaked out now.</p>
<p>"Yeah, don't worry," Stiles said, trying to hide his own concern behind bravado. He'd defeated the nogitsune before he'd truly understood his spark. He'd do it again in this timeline as long as crazy naked girl didn't stab his terrified little heart before he could activate his spark.</p>
<p>Fuck, he really should have listened to Derek and found a less physical way to activate the damn thing.</p>
<p>"Hey, crazy girl," Stiles called, breaking her concentration and her stupid chanting. "How did you know to keep my fingers separated?"</p>
<p>She smirked, checked her place in a book Stiles recognized from the Hale library, and began her chanting over again. With her poor pronunciation she was more likely to turn him into a frog than achieve whatever she thought she was going to achieve by stabbing him.</p>
<p>"Hey, is that Ally's knife?"</p>
<p>
  <em>When is a door, not a door?</em>
</p>
<p><a id="_GoBack" name="_GoBack"></a> "Seriously?" He wasn't even sure who he was talking to—Void, crazy girl, his mother, or Peter. He decided to deal with one entity at a time. "Hey, crazy naked girl, you know that knife is a replica, yeah?" Chris had it made years ago when he'd needed to swap it for the real knife that had been taken as evidence for Victoria's trial. "Even if it was the real thing it wouldn't work on me. You know that don't you? It's specific to shifters."</p>
<p>"That's what the spell is for," she said, rolling her eyes as she again checked the book.</p>
<p>"So you're planning to steal my power for yourself?" he asked, trying not to laugh hard enough to make her stab him earlier than planned.</p>
<p>She grinned as if she knew what she was doing.</p>
<p>"And the getting naked part?" he asked.</p>
<p>She shrugged. "Seemed easier than getting blood on my clothes."</p>
<p>"Yeah, okay, that makes sense." It was about the only thing that made sense at that moment, but eh, he'd put it in the win column. At least he understood <em>something</em>.</p>
<p>
  <em>When is a door—</em>
</p>
<p>"Shut up!"</p>
<p>"Are you talking to me?" Peter asked, sounding totally confused. Stiles empathized completely.</p>
<p>"I am now," Stiles said, saying the words out loud as well just to interrupt the chant again. "Can I get an ETA on the resc—Ah, never mind." A black wolf pretty much flew over him, grabbing crazy naked girl's hand and dragging her and Ally's knife away from Stiles's very grateful, still-beating heart.</p>
<p>It took a moment for him to realize Derek hadn't achieved a full shift in this timeline yet.</p>
<p>"Hey, Peter, when did Derek evolve?"</p>
<p>"He evolved?" Peter asked, clearly running toward him and getting much closer.</p>
<p>"Yeah, giant black wolf just saved my ass."</p>
<p>"Well," Peter said out loud as he sauntered into the clearing surrounding the nemeton, "that is a beautiful sight."</p>
<p>Derek was crouched over crazy naked girl, his muzzle just far enough away from the prone girl's face to give her a good view of all of his teeth. He growled in such a threatening manner that Stiles might even have been a little impressed.</p>
<p>
  <em>When is a—</em>
</p>
<p>The trickster almost sounded plaintive.</p>
<p>"Void, I haven't forgotten about you," Stiles said, giving Peter a significant look and then indicating his hand.</p>
<p>Peter rolled his eyes, extended a claw, and cut away the tree vine just enough for Stiles to be able to touch his middle finger to his thumb. The moment his spark activated Void made a sound of complete awe.</p>
<p>"Don't even think about it," he said to the nogitsune. "You didn't survive last time we met."</p>
<p>"Huh?"</p>
<p>Stiles kind of wanted to high-five himself. How many people could say they'd managed to confuse the fuck out of a trickster spirit?</p>
<p>"Peter, any idea who crazy naked chick is?"</p>
<p>"Danny's cousin, Illiandra."</p>
<p>"Seriously?" Stiles asked. "The cousin who begged for help to learn magic? That one?" Peter nodded. "Was she bat-shit crazy before she met us?"</p>
<p>Peter shook his head, trying to appear very serious, but he ruined it by smirking.</p>
<p>"Maybe a little," he finally conceded. "In my defense she plays the 'sweet young woman' really well. Had your dad fooled."</p>
<p>"But not you?" Stiles asked as he used his spark to dissolve the rest of his bonds.</p>
<p>Peter shrugged. "Maybe for a little while." He stayed beside Stiles, ready to catch him as he tried to work the blood back into his arms and legs. How long had he been unconscious?</p>
<p>"Hey, Der," Stiles said, smoothing his hand over the wolf's soft ear. "Thanks for the timely rescue."</p>
<p>Derek moved away and slowly changed back into his human shape. Stiles did not look down. He didn't. Okay, maybe he did, just a little bit, but in his defense he was an eighteen-year-old virgin in this timeline and the mate he'd always loved—and secretly jacked off to in this timeline before he'd remembered—was all hot and muscly and as naked as the…</p>
<p>He snapped his fingers, willing ugly, frumpy clothes onto both of them.</p>
<p>Derek raised one hairy eyebrow, but didn't comment.</p>
<p>The girl, however, screeched in mortification. Apparently she didn't appreciate clothes shaped like a hessian sack with an itchy neckline.</p>
<p>Stiles squatted beside her, using his spark to keep her immobile. "Now what shall we do with you, hmm?"</p>
<p>"You attacked a member of my pack," Derek said in a voice that would scare the piss out of any sane person.</p>
<p>Illiandra apparently took bat-shit crazy to a whole new level. She shrugged.</p>
<p>"You tried to kill my alpha," Peter said, smirking at the girl's confusion. Honestly it was irritating as fuck to deal with people who supposedly knew all about the supernatural but ignored the fact that alphas didn't need to be shifters.</p>
<p>"But most importantly," Stiles said, smiling sadly, "you proved that you're willing to kill to further your own ambitions."</p>
<p>"It didn't work," the girl said as if that absolved her from the planned-murder part of what had just happened.</p>
<p>"So you promise not to do it again?" Stiles asked, ignoring Derek's "What the fuck?"</p>
<p>"Of course," the girl said, apparently seeing a way out of this mess and a chance to try again—probably with someone, or maybe several someones, less able to defend themselves.</p>
<p>"You'll give up trying to increase your power? And won't do any dangerous spells?"</p>
<p>She nodded enthusiastically, silly enough to smirk at Derek's low growl of irritation.</p>
<p>"So you'll give up your magic and be a good girl?"</p>
<p>"Of course," she said, unwittingly giving Stiles permission.</p>
<p>"Thank you," he said sadly as he leaned over and touched the tip of his forefinger to the back of her hand. She screamed in outrage as her magic flowed out of her and into the earth beneath the nemeton.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Peter felt Stiles's grief as he passed judgment on the girl's behavior, decided her sentence, and then carried it out. Judge, jury and executioner.</p>
<p>It was a hell of a burden to carry, but short of killing the girl and burying her body and then pretending to the Mahealani family that she'd just gone missing, it was the best they could do. And only Stiles had the power to do it.</p>
<p>He'd been forced to do it too many times in the old timeline, to keep them safe, to protect humans who'd already feared them. It had been a part of their terrible reality.</p>
<p>And it meant that Stiles's memories really had returned.</p>
<p>Peter reached for the young man, hugging him hard.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Derek honestly had no idea what the fuck was going on.</p><p>He'd known all along that Stiles's magic was powerful, but he'd never realized he had the ability to strip magic from others. And he hadn't kept it for himself. He'd let it drain into the earth and then had given Illiandra a sad smile as if he'd regretted the need.</p><p>His actions were warranted. The girl had tried to kill him, and Derek still wanted to tear her throat out…with his teeth. But he had more pressing issues to deal with, like why Uncle Peter was crying as he held Stiles to him or why Stiles seemed different to the young man he'd spoken to via the Internet only a few hours ago.</p><p>Or how he'd managed a full shift when Derek had heard his mate was in danger.</p><p>Derek got the impression Peter and Stiles were speaking telepathically, so he grabbed Illiandra by the arm, tempering his strength only because he knew his mate wouldn't want the woman hurt, and turned her toward the Stilinski-Hale pack house.</p><p>"I'll meet you at home," he said to Peter and Stiles, already planning what he'd do when he got there.</p><p>Despite appearances and what Peter apparently believed, Noah had never really trusted the young woman. He'd be very interested to know who her target had been.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Okay," Stiles said out loud, pulling away from Peter. "Enough of this self-pity bullshit. We have a nogitsune to deal with."</p><p>"I'm assuming you have a plan."</p><p>"Don't I always?" Stiles asked with that smart-ass grin he'd often worn in the old timeline to hide just how fucking scared he'd felt—they'd <em>all</em> felt. He moved closer to the nemeton. "Mom?"</p><p>The young man seemed to listen for an answer but when apparently nothing happened he shrugged and gave Peter another sad smile.</p><p>"I'm pretty sure it was her," he said by way of explanation. "She's the only one who called me Mischief, well besides Dad, and he hasn't used it since Mom died."</p><p>"The voice I heard was definitely a woman," Peter agreed.</p><p>"You heard her tonight?"</p><p>"No," Peter admitted, "but the night you did the time-travel spell, I heard a woman's voice. She agreed that I should be the one to carry the memories into the past, not you."</p><p>Stiles nodded. "That definitely sounds like my mom. Sending Dad back with you would probably have been her idea too. Well probably his choice as well. I have no doubt he was thinking the same things you were when I cast that spell." He gave Peter a warm smile. "I'm assuming by the married part that having each other and both knowing is what kept you both stable."</p><p>"You make insanity sound so unappealing," Peter lamented.</p><p>Stiles snorted, as always seeing right through Peter's bullshit.</p><p>"I'm glad you had each other."</p><p>"Me too," Peter agreed. "And I'm sorry you needed to remember."</p><p>Stiles shrugged. "It has a few advantages." He climbed onto the tree stump and sat crossed-legged in the middle. "Any idea where Kira and Noshiko are these days?"</p><p>"Last we checked Ken was a professor at Columbia University, so we're pretty sure the family is in New York. Without the darach there was no earthquake to release the nogistune so Noshiko hasn't had a reason to return."</p><p>"I wonder if she bothered to explain the whole thunder kitsune thing to Kira in this timeline."</p><p>"This timeline?" Void asked gleefully. "You reset the timeline because of me?"</p><p>"You wish," Stiles said with a snort, tilting his head toward the nemeton when Peter raised his eyebrow. "Void is taking credit for the chaos of the old timeline."</p><p>"Ah," Peter said with a smirk. "Sorry, Void, you were already long gone before we met our most dangerous enemies."</p><p>"I think he might be sulking," Stiles said with a shrug.</p><p>"No enemies more dangerous than Void."</p><p>"Definitely sulking," Stiles confirmed for Peter. "Sorry again, Void, but you've obviously never dealt with humans afraid of things they don't understand."</p><p>"Humans always afraid."</p><p>"You're not wrong," Stiles agreed. "Any suggestions on how we should handle this?"</p><p>"You asking me or Void?"</p><p>"You, him, both… I don't know."</p><p>"I thought you always had a plan."</p><p>"Yeah, well my plan is to leave Void right where he is for the moment."</p><p>"I suppose it'll do for now."</p><p>"As long as we don't get another magical earthquake."</p><p>Peter shook his head. "I'm not silly enough to ask what the chances are."</p><p>Stiles snorted. "We do seem to tempt fate when we make statements like that."</p><p>"Okay," Peter said, moving off the nemeton. "We'll head home and then draw straws to see who gets the joy of telling a nine-hundred-year-old kitsune to stop leaving her problems in our backyard."</p><p>"Fun times," Stiles said. He patted the nemeton's stump. "We'll be back, Void. Sit tight."</p><p>"Not going… anywhere," Void said his tone a mixture of belligerence and sad resignation.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Derek?" Noah asked when he found Illiandra handcuffed to the reinforced ring of steel that was usually hidden under a panel in the floor of Peter's office. Noah had never been comfortable with the idea, but he was pragmatic enough to want to be prepared for every eventuality.</p><p>"She tried to kill Stiles," Derek said through clenched teeth. He had his back to her and was staring out the window. His posture screamed fear and worry, but his voice was pure anger.</p><p>"Stiles is home early?"</p><p>"I'm not sure of the details," Derek admitted. "I think he may have been planning to surprise us, but Illiandra somehow knew was in the area before we did."</p><p>"Is he okay?"</p><p>"Yeah," Derek said, not taking his eyes off the trees outside the window. "He and Peter shouldn't be far behind. I think there was something they needed to deal with at the nemeton first."</p><p>"Probably," Noah agreed, trying to swallow his anxiety when he realized what <em>problem</em> they were likely dealing with. Stiles was way stronger now and he had Peter with him. Running off into the forest to rescue his very capable son and husband was not something a sensible sheriff needed to do.</p><p>But hell if he didn't want to do it anyway.</p><p>Derek turned to face Illiandra. "How did you know where to find Stiles? Did you track him somehow?"</p><p>"I don't know what you're talking about," Illiandra said, squeezing a few genuine-looking tears from her eyes. "I found Stiles tied to the nemeton. I was trying to save him."</p><p>"Bullshit," Derek said, the word explosive in the enclosed room. "You stole Ally's knife and you were about to stab him with it."</p><p>"You're the one who stole that?" Noah asked, relieved to know he had an actual crime to charge her with.</p><p>"No, I found it," Illiandra said, turning her attention to Noah beseechingly. "I must have scared off whoever was attacking Stiles. I would never hurt your pack, Derek. You have to believe me."</p><p>Illiandra gave him such a sad smile that Noah may have been fooled by the innocent act if he hadn't seen glimpses of her true personality underneath that "sweet, innocent young woman" bullshit. She was as dangerous a predator as any ambitious, self-centered person could be.</p><p>Noah ignored her plea and moved to stand beside Derek in a show of solidarity.</p><p>"I'm guessing Danny isn't the only one good with computers," Noah said. His alpha had never fully trusted the woman—despite her familial relationship with Danny—and Noah had never tried to change his mind. In some ways it was a relief that Derek's trust was in short supply for anyone adjacent to or outside of the Stilinski-Hale packs because it meant he wouldn't feel this woman's betrayal as deeply as he had with Kate Argent and Alan Deaton.</p><p>"You think she cloned his phone?" Derek had been quick to catch up on technology when he'd realized the chaos an unauthorized video could do if it went viral on the Internet.</p><p>"Lydia would have noticed anything else."</p><p>"True."</p><p>"I didn't do anything wrong, Sheriff. I promise I was only trying to help."</p><p>"And Stiles will back up your story?" Noah asked, trying to balance his training as an investigator and law enforcement officer with his concern for his family.</p><p>"Of course," Illiandra said with a completely straight face. Derek snorted, but she kept her eyes on Noah, apparently deciding he was her best chance of a rescue. "Stiles was still drugged and kind of out of it when I found him, but I was only trying to help him."</p><p>"Yeah," Derek said sarcastically. "He was so grateful for your help he drained you of your magic."</p><p>Noah stilled as the implications rolled through his mind.</p><p>He grabbed his phone and hurriedly dialed his husband.</p><p>"Where are you?"</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"I'm glad we decided to keep the lake house," Lorraine said as she stepped into the room where Natalie was working on her lesson plans for her first year back at Beacon Hills high.</p><p>"Me too," Natalie said, glad to finally get away from the bustle of LA and simply enjoy the sounds of nature again.</p><p>"I still can't figure out why the basement gives me the chills though," Lorraine said as she sat down in the chair opposite. "It never used to."</p><p>"Lydia said the same thing last time we were here. She wondered if a shifter had once taken shelter in there during a full moon. She thinks maybe they were struggling to keep their more dangerous impulses under control."</p><p>"I didn't see any damage," Lorraine said, "but then I didn't stay long enough down there to be sure either."</p><p>Natalie shrugged. "I'll have a better look next time I'm down there."</p><p>"Well I guess the good news is that it makes it a banshee thing and not a 'getting old and losing my mind' thing. That's sort of comforting."</p><p>"I'm sorry," Natalie said, remembering the time when they'd honestly believed Lorraine had lost her mind. "If I'd known how bad Eichen was…"</p><p>"You didn't know," Lorraine said kindly, "and you were there when I needed you most."</p><p>"Well Noah was there," Natalia admitted. They'd never really talked about the night they'd rescued Lorraine from a serial killer almost a decade ago. "I'd already dismissed everything he told me but then Lydia started screaming and well, you know the rest."</p><p>"Yes I do," Lorraine said quietly. "My son did two things right in his life. He married you."</p><p>"And the other?" Natalie asked curiously.</p><p>"And he left you responsible for my care."</p><p>Natalie laughed softly. "I'll take that as a compliment."</p><p>"As you should," Lorraine said with a wide grin. "Without you and Arial my life would be pretty meaningless."</p><p>"Are you sure you're okay coming back to Beacon Hills? Lydia wanted to be closer to the pack, but she's a grown woman. She doesn't need me hovering over her any longer. We could go back to LA if you want."</p><p>"I'm okay here," Lorraine assured her. "I relished the years in LA. It's been a joy to watch Lydia grow into such a confident, dedicated young woman, but Beacon Hills will always be home."</p><p>Natalie nodded because she felt the same way.</p><p>Sometimes she wondered why.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Stiles," Noah said, hugging him hard the moment they met in the front yard of the pack house. Several minutes later he finally took a step back and checked his son over. "Are you okay?"</p><p>"Peachy," he said, grinning and shrugging in a way that was way too familiar and also not. "Dad, I'm fine."</p><p>"You drained Illiandra's magic."</p><p>"Yeah. Sorry," Stiles said, smiling wryly. "I guess I'm not going to be able to keep the fact that I remember everything a secret from you, huh?"</p><p>"Not a chance," Noah said, weirdly grateful to have his son from the other timeline returned to him. He hated that Stiles remembered the old timeline the way he and Peter did, and he loved the man his son had grown into in the new timeline, but the bond they'd forged through shared trauma had been severed when the spell had worked. "Welcome home, son."</p><p>"Thanks, Dad," Stiles said, easing out of the hug and turning toward the house. "I better go call Danny and fill him in on what's happening."</p><p>"Illiandra's claiming she was there to rescue you."</p><p>Stiles snorted.</p><p>"That was Derek's response too."</p><p>The smile dropped from Stiles's face.</p><p>"Shit," he whispered quietly, his legs wobbling in reaction. "I remember how he died."</p><p>Peter hustled him toward the veranda steps and eased him down. And then Peter and Noah sat either side of him, silently supporting him as he fell apart and they waited for the storm of emotion to pass.</p><p>Yeah, this was why they'd been happy Stiles hadn't returned with them nearly a decade ago.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"I've put Jordan Parrish in charge of the case," Noah said, stepping back into the office where Derek and Peter were waiting for him and Stiles. It was so late it was almost time to head back into the station for his next official shift.</p><p>"You didn't want to handle it yourself?" Peter asked curiously.</p><p>"Technically, even though the cabin the knife was stolen from belongs to Chris and Ally, it's located on land owned by my family. It's just a lot less messy if someone else handles the police work."</p><p>"Will Illiandra be charged with attempted murder?" Derek asked.</p><p>Noah shook his head. "It'll raise too many questions. They're holding her on the kidnapping charge."</p><p>"Crazy bitch totaled my jeep," Stiles lamented. "That and the theft of a knife worth a whole lot of money. Even the replica is worth more than my jeep."</p><p>"Everything is worth more than your jeep," Noah said, dragging a smile from his son.</p><p>"Sentimental value means it's priceless," Stile's replied, sniffing haughtily.</p><p>"The knife?" Derek prompted, obviously anxious to understand what would happen to Illiandra.</p><p>"Chris has submitted documents that value the knife at several thousand dollars which raises the seriousness of the theft considerably."</p><p>"So how are the two connected," Peter asked. "Without the attempted murder they're unrelated acts. What reason does she have for abducting and drugging Stiles?"</p><p>Stiles grinned. "Apparently," he said, building the drama as if he hadn't just been abducted and drugged and nearly killed, "Illiandra mistakenly believed the knife she stole was a replica and she was going to hold me as a hostage until Chris handed over the 'real' knife."</p><p>Peter chuckled. "So she's facing some very serious charges."</p><p>"And she gets to face them without her magic. Not that she was particularly good at it, but you know, magic won't be a problem."</p><p>"She'll also plead guilty if her family has any influence over her. She may decide to engage a public defender, but her family is very clearly done with her antics. Her juvenile record was sealed, but the few details Danny's mother gave me were rather eye watering." He frowned. "Apparently sending her to stay with the Beacon Hills branch of the family had been a last chance."</p><p>"In other words," Peter said with a soft huff, "they heard we had a library full of books about magic and saw their opportunity to offload the trouble-child to someone else."</p><p>"Pretty much," Noah admitted.</p><p>Stiles yawned and moved toward the sofa. He snagged Derek's hand on the way and urged the alpha to join him. "At least they weren't shocked by the allegations," Stiles pointed out. "We would have had a whole other problem if they hadn't believed the real version of events."</p><p>"Yeah, at least one thing went well tonight," Derek said, obviously deeply affected by the attack on his mate. He looked genuinely surprised when Stiles sat down and leaned against him tiredly, snuggling closer when Derek lifted his arm and wrapped it over his shoulders.</p><p>Noah glanced at his watch.</p><p>"I should try for a few hours sleep."</p><p>"Amelia will be up soon," Peter said, shrugging.</p><p>"I'll run interference," Derek offered, well aware of the hormonal teenage werewolf who seemed intent on making sure no one ever considered her adorable ever again. Stiles shuddered. He may have been living several hours away, but he'd obviously witnessed way too many tantrums to underestimate the ferociousness of his adopted sister.</p><p>"It's okay," Peter said, stretching as he stood up. "I've been dozing while we waited. I'll deal with Amelia when she wakes. You two get some rest." He reached for Noah's hand. "And I'll snuggle with you until the wicked witch starts screeching."</p><p>Noah laughed. "You know she knows you call her that, right?"</p><p>"I do now," Peter said, looking genuinely terrified.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Missed you," Stiles said, wriggling as if he could somehow get closer.</p><p>"I missed you too," Derek whispered, almost unable to believe that Stiles was actually home this time to stay. He and Lydia had come home fairly regularly in their first few months at college, but once they'd decided to double their course loads in an effort to compress six year courses into three they'd barely had time to talk online.</p><p>It still seemed unfathomable that they'd been able to squeeze so many years of schooling into such a short time. They were both incredibly smart—and they'd taken as many online college courses as they could before moving to LA—but that was still a hell of a lot of work. Derek was almost glad he had his duties as pack alpha to use as an excuse for his own average grades and achievements.</p><p>"Are you falling asleep on me?"</p><p>"Mm-hmm."</p><p>"Do you want me to carry you to bed?"</p><p>The low sexy chuckle was a little lower and whole lot sexier than he'd expected but the warmth it sent through him was very distracting.</p><p>"Yes, please."</p><p>Lifting Stiles into his arms felt so natural. Putting him down, however, was a whole different challenge.</p><p>"Stay," Stiles mumbled, clinging to him, his arms shaking. "Don't want to let you go."</p><p>"I don't want to let you go either," Derek admitted in a voice suddenly thick with nerves and emotion.</p><p>"So stay," Stiles said, finally letting Derek place him on the mattress. Stiles kept hold of his hand as he shuffled across the narrow bed. "Please stay."</p><p>"Of course." Derek nodded, eased himself onto the bed, and curled around his mate for the very first time.</p><p>It felt incredible.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>It felt like he'd barely closed his eyes when his phone began to ring. Noah struggled to wakefulness even as Peter reached over him to grab the phone.</p><p>"It's Lydia," he said urgently, waking Noah instantly and more thoroughly than even the strongest cup of coffee ever could.</p><p>"I woke from a nightmare," Lydia said breathlessly the moment Peter answered. "One of <em>those</em> nightmares."</p><p>"Stiles is okay," Peter assured her. "He was attacked but he's okay."</p><p>"Not Stiles," Lydia said sounding annoyed, "but we will circle back to why I wasn't told this earlier. No, someone else."</p><p>"Do you have any details I can work with, kiddo?" Noah asked, easily falling into the rapport he'd had with Lydia since she'd been a scared nine-year-old in this timeline. They'd found over the years that Lydia's and Lorraine's banshee sides usually zeroed in on specific deaths—people close to them or deaths within the Stilinski-Hale territory that were supernatural in cause.</p><p>Lydia had once led him to the body dump used by a family of wendigos living in the area. Noah had gotten the feds involved and happily handed the unsolvable case to Rafael McCall after Chris and a couple of his more trustworthy hunter friends had carefully made sure the wendigos were no longer around to cause trouble. The missing family members were still persons of interest in McCall's files but the case had gone cold and McCall had refused to take Noah's calls ever since. Noah <em>almost</em> felt sorry for the man.</p><p>"The dream was vague, as usual," Lydia said, obviously annoyed. "Water, purity, the number 'three.' Everything else was fuzzy but the location felt familiar, felt like I'd been there more than once."</p><p>"Could you be picking up on something that's about to happen closer to where you are right now?" Peter asked.</p><p>"Maybe," Lydia admitted. "But that would mean it's going to happen to someone I care for deeply. I don't really know any of my traveling companions well enough for that to be the case."</p><p>"Any chance you're going to cut your vacation short?"</p><p>"I'll think about it," Lydia said, her resignation very clear in her sad tone. The only death they'd been able to prevent had been Lydia's grandmother's and that success had meant Lydia had grown more dismayed each time she'd been unable to prevent a death.</p><p>But Noah often wondered if saving Lorraine had more to do with their time travel than nine-year-old-Lydia's premonition.</p><p>Since resetting the timeline they'd been suspiciously "on time" to prevent several things they'd not known the correct dates or full details for—Lydia's grandmother's murder, Camden's beating that would have been fatal without Derek's intervention, Boyd's sister's abduction, and the beginning of Erica being poisoned by her mother so they could stop it before the accumulated damage could appear as epilepsy. It was beginning to feel like they were being guided.</p><p>Either that or they were blessed with more "dumb luck" than anybody deserved.</p><p>But the one thing that hadn't changed was that when Lydia screamed, someone died.</p><p>"The pack misses you, sweetheart," Peter said in a kind tone. He'd never really gotten over the guilt he felt for the way he'd used the banshee to resurrect himself in the old timeline. "Aiden especially."</p><p>"I miss him too," Lydia admitted in a soft voice.</p><p>"So why did you go to Hawaii?" Noah asked. By the time she and Stiles had finished their degrees there had been a six year age difference with their classmates. Lydia was very mature for her age but she'd been too busy rushing through her coursework to make any real friends. Her last-minute decision to go on a vacation with classmates had surprised them all.</p><p>"Seemed like a good idea at the time?" Peter asked.</p><p>"Yeah, something like that," she agreed. "It's just…" She huffed a tired breath and rushed the words out. "I'm only eighteen and I have a degree and a career path and a life plan and I'm scared Aiden will want to… you know, expect me to stay home and have his babies."</p><p>Noah bit his lips hard in an effort not to laugh. Peter wasn't so controlled.</p><p>"You haven't been home in a while, have you?"</p><p>"Well, no," Lydia admitted. "There always seemed to be another assignment due or extra credit to chase."</p><p>"Amelia hit puberty," Peter said as if that explained everything.</p><p>"Huh?" Lydia asked before making a sound of dawning understanding. It had been a nightmare dealing with Malia and Allison together—shifters and puberty were not a good mix—and yet Amelia was making that horrific experience seem like a walk in the park. "So he's not in any hurry to um…"</p><p>"Honey," Peter said, laughing softly, "there's a good chance he'll never want children, ever."</p><p>"He and Ethan are already talking about starting their own business when they graduate college," Noah added. "You're not the only one with career plans. Maybe you two just need to sit down and talk a few things out."</p><p>"He's going to college?" Lydia asked in a quiet voice.</p><p>"Of course," Peter said, frowning at Lydia's question. "He never told you?"</p><p>"No."</p><p>"Maybe he wanted to surprise you when you got home."</p><p>"Okay, yeah, Hawaii was a stupid idea," Lydia admitted easily. "I'll be on the next plane home."</p><p>"Shall we tell him or do you want it to be a surprise?"</p><p>"Don't tell him," Lydia decided after a moment. "That whole meet-me-at-the-airport-gate thing is just embarrassing."</p><p>Noah laughed softly. "Stay safe. We'll see you soon."</p><p>"Text me the details and I'll make sure someone, who is not Aiden, can collect you from the airport."</p><p>"I will. Thanks."</p><p>"Anytime," Noah said and then disconnected the call. "Did we just play cupid?"</p><p>"Of course not," Peter said in a tone that actually sounded offended.</p><p>"U-huh," Noah responded, unconvinced.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Derek didn't close his eyes simply because he was enjoying holding his sleeping mate for the very first time. For too many years he'd wondered and imagined what it would be like, but the reality was so much better.</p><p>Stiles was a snuggler, wriggling back any time Derek moved away. Unfortunately all that rubbing was creating a difficult-to-conceal problem. It didn't help that Stiles had started to moan and smell of arousal and seemed to be doing it with a goal in mind.</p><p>Derek was also pretty sure the guy was awake.</p><p>And when he rolled suddenly, climbed over Derek, and started sliding their hard cocks together, he could do nothing but respond. He opened his mouth to perhaps try and make sure his mate was actually okay but Stiles pressed a kiss to his lips and his tongue in his mouth and he surrendered to temptation.</p><p>"Der," Stiles mumbled between kisses. "I've missed you so damn much. Where's the lube? I need to fuck you."</p><p>He was a little startled by the suggestion—Derek had kind of expected Stiles to let him lead the first time since he was older which in hindsight was a ridiculous assumption—but he wasn't against exploring everything with his mate. He reached over to the drawer beside Stiles's bed and followed his nose to the half-empty bottle.</p><p>He was suddenly very glad teenage-Stiles hadn't cleaned out his bedroom before going off to college.</p><p>Stiles grinned, and reached for the button on Derek's jeans. Derek let his mate strip them both of clothes, tensing up only momentarily when Stiles's lubed-up finger pushed into his hole. But as if he knew exactly what he was doing, Stiles worked him open, grinning down at him when he started to moan and leak pre-cum all over his stomach.</p><p>"Ready, baby?" Stiles asked before licking into Derek's mouth with an expertise he hadn't been expecting.</p><p>Derek moaned and nodded and dragged his mate closer. They'd never actually discussed it, but Derek was pretty sure Stiles had known for years that they were mates. He'd kind of just expected Stiles wouldn't be interested in anyone else so they'd never set any rules or made any promises to each other. Just because Derek had been celibate since meeting Stiles it didn't mean Stiles hadn't experimented in college.</p><p>But even if he had, it was okay. They were together now. It would just be the two of them moving forward.</p><p>Stiles was gentle and he held Derek like he was precious, pushing into him again and again and redefining everything Derek knew about love and sex. And when they reached the pinnacle, Stiles wrapped his warm fingers around Derek's cock and brought them to climax together, kissing him passionately as they both jolted with pleasure.</p><p>And when they were both spent, Stiles collapsed onto him, squishing Derek's cum between them, scent marking them both in ways that Derek thought were unique to shifters. Maybe Stiles wasn't experienced. Maybe he'd just given their eventual relationship a whole lot of thought.</p><p>That sounded exactly like something his mate would do.</p><p>Derek almost had himself convinced until Stiles mumbled, "Please, Der, don't ever leave me again."</p><p>"I never left," Derek said, confused by Stiles plea.</p><p>"You died," Stiles said, his voice suddenly full of anger. "You died protecting me and you left me alone. I can't go through that again. I can't. I won't."</p><p>What the fuck? Derek wrapped his arms around his distraught mate, curling around him the way they'd slept, and held Stiles close long after the younger man cried himself to sleep.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Stiles didn't want to wake up. He'd dreamed of Derek last night and for the first time in a very long time it had been peaceful and fun and not just the endless repetition of his death. Stiles wanted to hold onto the happy dream just a little bit longer, so he kept his eyes closed and tried to make his mind go blank.</p><p>Peter or Dad would wake him if there was trouble coming their way.</p><p>But the realization he was naked had him jolting upright. They'd had to scramble too often in the middle of the night to risk being caught without their clothes on. Hell, most nights Stiles wore his boots as well just so he didn't waste time trying to drag the damn things on.</p><p>The room was unfamiliar—that wasn't unusual—but it was the man beside him that had him jolting away in fear.</p><p>"Stiles?"</p><p>Stiles shook his head in denial, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.</p><p>Derek was younger than he remembered, more toned, more muscular, healthier in a way that suggested much better nutrition than what they'd been able to access while on the run from just about the whole damn world.</p><p>"We shouldn't… You can't…" He dived into his mate's arms. "How are you here?"</p><p>"I live here," Derek answered, sounding perplexed. "Are you okay? Do you need medical help? Do we know what Illiandra drugged you with last night?"</p><p>"Last night?" Stiles asked, swallowing hard as he tried to remember details. "Illiandra?"</p><p>"Shit, okay," Derek said, hurriedly climbing off the bed and dragging on his clothes. "Do you need help getting dressed?"</p><p>"What? No I—" Stiles gazed around the room, finally noticing its familiarity. This was his room. The room he'd grown up in. The rebuilt Hale house. The Stilinski-Hale pack house. In a different fucking timeline. "Shit!"</p><p>Derek opened the door—breaking the soundproofing—and called for Peter.</p><p>The werewolf joined them before Stiles could gather his wits long enough to call him off.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Peter smirked when he caught the scent that filled the room until he realized how freaked out his nephew was.</p><p>"Derek, what happened?" he asked, glancing over at Stiles as he stumbled pulling up his jeans.</p><p>"I'm not sure," Derek answered quickly. He moved toward Stiles, perhaps in an effort to steady him before his panicked reaction had him falling on his face, but the moment he got close enough Stiles pulled away almost violently. Startled, Derek took a step back. "He doesn't seem to remember last night. Maybe it's from the drugs Illiandra gave him?"</p><p>"Maybe," Peter conceded, watching Stiles closely. "Derek, call Noah and find out if the results of Stiles's tox-screen are back yet. If we know what he was drugged with, it might give us an idea on how to handle it."</p><p>"Sure," Derek said, patting down his pockets until he found his phone on the bedside table.</p><p>With Derek's attention momentarily diverted Peter moved closer to Stiles, searching his eyes for the answers he needed. The young man gave him a sad smile and shook his head.</p><p>Peter was pretty sure he understood what had happened and his heart broke for both of them.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Derek?" Noah asked the moment he saw the caller ID and answered his phone. "Everything okay?"</p><p>"No," he said, sounding like the terrified fifteen-year-old he hadn't been for nearly a decade. "There's something wrong with Stiles. He's— He doesn't remember last night and the—"</p><p>His words cut off and Noah could hear his son's voice in the background.</p><p>"Okay," he said, seeming to be talking to Stiles. "It's um… It's okay, I think. Stiles is going to call you, so I'll um… Yeah, I'll just hang up."</p><p>The call disconnected before Noah could ask anything else.</p><p>Stiles's call came through almost immediately, but instead of talking to Noah, Stiles was still apparently assuring Derek he was all right.</p><p>"I'm okay, Der. Honestly. I… You know, waking in my old room and all that… I just… You know, was disorientated for a minute there. You know, kinda freaked me out, is all. I…um… yeah, I'll just talk to my dad and I'll join you for breakfast. Yeah, I'm good. I promise."</p><p>At the sound of a door closing—probably as Derek left and gave Stiles some privacy—Stiles breathing took on a more erratic note.</p><p>"Dad," he said, sounding like he was pacing around the room. "Dad, I fucked up."</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Derek had never bothered to mention that as his alpha power had grown so had his hearing ability. It had never seemed important. He wasn't in the habit of listening to private conversations through closed doors, so there hadn't been any need to redo the soundproofing in the pack house.</p><p>It may have also given him a little bit of peace knowing he would hear if one of his pack needed him even with their bedroom door closed.</p><p>But Stiles's words to his father had Derek's knees wobbling like a new-born foal's.</p><p>What the hell did Stiles fuck up?</p><p>Derek forced himself to think of all of the unrelated-to-him things Stiles could be referring to—just as his therapist had taught him years ago—but he couldn't shake the feeling that what had happened between them was the reason Stiles was freaking out.</p><p>He wanted to linger, to stay and listen, but when Peter reached the stairs he turned to give Derek an inquiring look. Instead of explaining he hurried to join his uncle and together they moved into the kitchen.</p><p>After five minutes of uncharacteristic silence Derek huffed in annoyance and turned to his uncle.</p><p>"You're not going to comment?" he asked.</p><p>For a moment Derek flashed back to the early days—before Noah and Stiles, before his mother's death at the hands of his sister, before Kate, before <em>everything</em>—and saw the uncle who'd held himself apart from the pack, who'd smirked and evaded direct questions, who'd acted like an outsider and someone none of them could trust.</p><p>But then Peter smiled and pulled Derek in for a hug. "I'm happy for you," he said quietly, "but maybe give Stiles a bit of breathing space for a few days. Last night was…" He seemed to search for a word and shook his head sadly. "'Traumatic' doesn't go anywhere near covering it. Just know that he loves you. Always has. Always will."</p><p>"He's my mate. I can help."</p><p>"Not with this," Peter said with absolute certainty.</p><p>Derek suddenly wanted to shift and run from everyone and everything. He wasn't even sure he knew why. He just had to get away, escape his whole life.</p><p>Peter broke his circular, self-destructive thoughts by handing him a cup of coffee.</p><p>"Lydia is coming home today. Maybe you should go collect her from the airport."</p><p>"Aiden—"</p><p>"Lydia wants to avoid the whole airport cliché and surprise him at home instead."</p><p>"Yeah that sounds like Lydia. Okay."</p><p>Derek's phone pinged even before he finished the words. He glanced down to see the details Peter had just forwarded to him. He had about an hour before he needed to leave.</p><p>"I'm going to go for a quick run."</p><p>Peter smiled. "On two legs or four?"</p><p>Derek shrugged, a little bit happier to remember his new ability. He wasn't sure he'd be able to manage the full shift without his mate being in danger, but he'd give it a go. "I guess we'll see."</p><p>"Just don't go leaving torn-up clothing all over the preserve. We have enough problems with the Hale family legacy without having to explain why we're running around the preserve naked.</p><p>Derek laughed softly.</p><p>"Yeah, I'll be careful."</p><p>Peter grinned and waved him away.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Stiles wasn't really surprised to find Derek had left the house.</p><p>"Your mate is really confused," Peter said, using telepathy instead of the verbal communication he'd insisted on the past three years.</p><p>"I know," Stiles said out loud just to be contrary. He didn't really want anyone else to overhear their conversation, but he was also pissed enough to pick a fight with whoever was handy.</p><p>"Do you want to talk about it?" Peter asked, still using telepathy.</p><p>"Fuck, no," Stiles mumbled into the refrigerator as he leaned in to grab the orange juice.</p><p>"Are you going to explain to Derek?"</p><p>"Yeah, that'll go down well," he said sarcastically, switching to telepathy so that he didn't need to monitor who was in hearing range. "Hey, Derek, sorry I fucked your brains out. I thought you were someone else."</p><p>But instead of being outraged at the crude inference that he'd been fucking around while at college, Peter caught his meaning instantly.</p><p>"He's still your mate."</p><p>"I know. Dad said the same thing," Stiles said, giving Peter a helpless shrug. "But he's not <em>my</em> Derek."</p><p>Peter went to say something else but Stiles held up his hand in an attempt to silence him. He didn't need pity. He didn't want to talk. He wanted to go back to yesterday before he had the memories of a twenty-six-year-old version of himself and the man who'd meant more to him that he could ever explain. He wanted to go back to the day before Derek died. He wanted to hold the love of his life one more time. Just one more time.</p><p>God, he was so fucked.</p><p>"And I'm not <em>his</em> Stiles," he said, his words breaking even with telepathy. "We're both in love with men who no longer exist. I… I can't… Peter, god, what am I going to do? He's not my Derek and he never will be."</p><p>Peter didn't even try to speak.</p><p>He stepped closer, wrapped Stiles in his arms, and held him tight.</p><p> </p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p><a id="_GoBack" name="_GoBack"></a> Isaac was already smiling when he stepped onto the porch steps of the cabin Allison's minions—as Peter affectionately called them—had been living in for the past year. Stiles had been fourteen when he'd pretty much stumbled onto a way to break the spell holding the shifters inside their bone prisons.</p><p>Underneath they'd found three werewolves with zero understanding of the modern world. They were still incredibly loyal to Allison, possibly because she'd never once given them an order or treated them like anything other than individuals with thoughts and feelings of their own. Even before Stiles had broken the spell she'd given them a level of respect that they'd never gotten from anyone else.</p><p>And they'd all quickly jumped in to help when they'd faced the Dread Doctors last year. Isaac still had no idea how Noah and Peter had identified the threat so quickly but, considering how difficult it could have been to fight an invisible, weird, reality-shifting trio of ancient madmen, it had been a huge relief to have the situation dealt with long before it could spiral out of control. It would have been better if they'd been able to stop Theo Raeken before he'd fled, but without the Dread Doctors help at least he was just a werewolf and not a serious threat.</p><p>"Good morning," Isaac called as he walked into the cabin.</p><p>"Kitchen," Aesof called. "I'm making a shopping list."</p><p>"Excellent," Isaac said, joining the man at the table. "Do you need any help?"</p><p>"No, actually," Aesof said, grinning broadly. "I had this amazing teacher who taught me how to read and write a couple years ago."</p><p>Isaac could feel a blush creeping up his cheeks. They had no idea how old any of them were—they'd been berserkers waiting for La Loba longer than any of them could remember—but they all appeared to be in their mid twenties and seemed to be aging the same as any other werewolf now that the spell was broken.</p><p>When the berserkers had been freed Isaac had been fifteen and much better at school work than when he and Camden had come to live with the pack, but Isaac remembered how isolating it felt to not know the basics. He'd never been able to learn anything else well until Stiles and the rest of the pack had helped him fill in the gaps of his early education. It had seemed only right to offer to help someone in a similar situation.</p><p>And it had made Isaac realize just how much he enjoyed teaching. He was due to start college at the end of summer and hopefully in a few years he'd have his teaching license and be in a position to help kids who'd fallen through the cracks the way he'd done.</p><p>Thanks to Camden, Noah, Stiles, and the rest of the pack, Isaac had the opportunity to follow his dreams and there wasn't a chance in hell he was going to waste it.</p><p>"So I hear Ally got accepted to the same college."</p><p>Yeah, that part was pure bonus.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Lydia grinned and ran to hug him.</p><p>"I thought you were trying to avoid the stereotype," Derek whispered, spinning her in a circle just to attract the attention she'd been trying to escape.</p><p>She laughed, her joy seeping into his skin and pulling a smile to his lips.</p><p>"I'm avoiding the awkward are-we-together-or-not hug."</p><p>"I'm pretty sure you and Aiden are together. His disappointment when you decided to go on vacation rather than come home was not something he could hide."</p><p>"That bad?" Lydia asked, sounding regretful. "I wasn't… I needed…" She rolled her eyes, clearly impatient with her waffling. "I got caught up in my head, and started worrying that Aiden and I wanted different things."</p><p>"I'm assuming Peter helped you see things more clearly."</p><p>"And Noah," Lydia said, rolling her eyes and pretending that their help was unwelcome. The truth was that since Lydia had joined their pack Peter and Noah had been better fathers to her than her own deadbeat dad.</p><p>"Aiden wanted to defer college for a year," Derek said, finally putting her back on her feet and reaching for her hand.</p><p>"To spend time with me?" Lydia asked.</p><p>"Yeah, when he realized you weren't coming straight home he was worried that another four years of barely seeing each other would destroy what you two have always had."</p><p>"A self fulfilling prophecy," Lydia said, rolling her eyes again. "My actions nearly caused the very thing I was trying to avoid."</p><p>"Sounds like it," Derek agreed.</p><p>"But you talked him out of it?"</p><p>"Yeah. Ethan, Jax, Danny, your mom, Isaac, Ally. Pretty much everyone had something to say. Malia told him not to bother with college at all, but I get the impression she just likes to disagree whatever the topic."</p><p>"It's probably her coyote instincts," Lydia said with a shrug. "They're not really meant for packs."</p><p>"True," he agreed, surprised that he hadn't considered that before. Malia would do anything to protect her pack and family, but she was far happier being on the fringes rather than in the middle. "Oh and Amelia had her say as well."</p><p>Lydia pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side. "That bad, huh?"</p><p>"Worse," Derek said with a laugh, "but regardless of her opinion she did manage to convince him that four years away from home was a pretty good idea. Amelia will be nearly seventeen by the time they're finished."</p><p>Lydia laughed, giving him a soft smile.</p><p>"It's good to be home," she said.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Your cousin attacked Stiles," Aiden said aggressively the moment Danny stepped into the room.</p><p>"Back off," Ethan told his brother, stepping between him and his human target. "Danny is not responsible for his cousin's actions."</p><p>"But he introduced her to us. He brought that bitch into our home and risked the safety of the pack."</p><p>Ethan understood why his brother was mad. Illiandra had flirted and teased and generally ingratiated herself into their lives, and they'd all accepted her presence to various degrees. She'd never been considered pack but the Mahealani family members were friends and allies and trusted with many of the pack's secrets.</p><p>Illiandra had betrayed their trust in the most basic way and Aiden hated himself for having fallen for her lies.</p><p>But Danny didn't deserve to be painted with the same brush. He was nothing like his ambitious bitch of a cousin. He was Jackson's best friend—more so the past three years with Stiles and Lydia attending college in LA—and a really nice guy.</p><p>Some days he fit with them so completely that Ethan had often wondered if he was Aiden's mate and they just hadn't noticed because Danny was mostly human. But then he'd seen Aiden react to Lydia when she visited from college and he'd written the idea off as wishful thinking.</p><p>Aiden had even considered deferring his own college education for a year in order to spend some time with the banshee when she came home. It would have been be weird attending college without his twin, but Ethan was looking forward to sharing an apartment with his mate and their closest friend.</p><p>They'd made so many threesome jokes in the past few months that Ethan was beginning to wonder if Jackson and Danny had ever thought about it the way he had.</p><p>He quickly shut down those thoughts. The last thing he needed was his brother catching a whiff of his arousal when his mate wasn't even in the house.</p><p>"Aiden," Danny said, stepping around Ethan and moving toward his twin. "I'm so sorry this happened, but I promise you I never have and I never will betray your trust in me."</p><p>Aiden shook his head, nodded once, and then turned and left the room.</p><p>"That's Aiden-speak for 'I'll think about it.'"</p><p>Danny nodded. "The scariest part is I actually knew that."</p><p>Ethan couldn't help but grin.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Aiden was barely out the front door when he heard the alpha's car coming down the driveway. He glanced in Derek's direction and, as had become his habit, admired the sleek lines of the muscle car Derek had bought himself when he'd turned twenty-one. The engine purred but instead of skidding sideways into his parking spot the way he usually did—yeah, apparently being twenty-four didn't stop his alpha from being a show-off—Derek instead rolled the car gently into its place.</p><p>That usually meant he had a human onboard.</p><p>When he realized which human he ran to the car and wrapped his arms around Lydia almost before she could get out of the seat. And then she said the one thing he'd been hoping to hear for nearly three years.</p><p>"Missed you so much."</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Noah stood at the edge of the blood puddle and shook his head sadly.</p><p>It was Lydia's vision.</p><p>Water. The victim was tied to a tree facing the lake.</p><p>Purity. The girl was wearing a ring that proclaimed her virginity.</p><p>And the number three. She had three wounds and all of them would have been fatal. The threefold death.</p><p>He stepped away from the scene and called his husband.</p><p> </p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>"Peter," Noah said the moment he answered the phone. "We need to track down Julia Baccari."</p>
<p>Dread flooded Peter's mind. "What did she do?" he asked, searching his memory for the druid's last known address. He'd kept tabs on her since she'd been released from Eichen, but with her need for vengeance sated he'd not really considered her a threat to their pack or the general public.</p>
<p>"Threefold death of a virgin."</p>
<p>"Shit," Peter said, reaching for his laptop. "Why the hell would she do this now?" He pulled up the emails from the investigator he had on retainer and double checked the address. "I know where she lives."</p>
<p>"How do you want to play this?" Noah asked, thankfully taking the sensible approach and letting the supernatural deal with supernatural problems.</p>
<p>"Maybe get Hal involved," Peter suggested.</p>
<p>"He was the one who deemed her fit to leave Eichen?"</p>
<p>"He was," Peter confirmed. "And he doesn't make decisions like that lightly. She took her vengeance. She wasn't considered a threat to anyone else."</p>
<p>"I would have made the same decision," Noah admitted, surprising Peter just a little. They'd argued over the years about the difference between justice and vengeance, but he supposed it would make sense that they'd both move toward a middle ground on a topic they still mostly disagreed on. Peter had grown enough to recognize that a couple of the people involved in the original Hale house fire hadn't been involved enough to warrant the death penalty.</p>
<p>And it had stopped him from seeking the same vengeance in this timeline. He'd ruined their lives in other—<em>mostly</em> legal—ways, but it had been enough for him when he'd been in his right mind and not suffering the psychosis created by being burned and abandoned.</p>
<p>"Okay," Noah said, "get Hal caught up. I'll meet you at Eichen in a couple hours."</p>
<p>"That place still creeps me out," Peter said. He wasn't pouting—he wasn't!—but Eichen still had too many dark corners for him to ever be comfortable.</p>
<p>"Well if you can convince Hal to come back to the house early, I'll meet you at home."</p>
<p>"Now see this is why I love you."</p>
<p>"Yeah, yeah," Noah said with a warm laugh. "I'll be there as quickly as I can."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Stiles wasn't really sure what to do with himself. He was grateful for the chance to be alone for a few hours, but he was still adjusting to the fact that he no longer had course work or exams taking up most of his time. It felt so weird not to have a deadline looming over him.</p>
<p>And it felt even weirder for it to be overlaid with the urge to keep running, to keep moving, to evade and escape an enemy that never let them rest.</p>
<p>"Stiles?" Amelia asked, hovering in the doorway instead of coming into the theatre room where Stiles was still kind of just staring at a blank screen.</p>
<p>"Hey, Lala," he said, waving her toward the sofa he was sitting on.</p>
<p>She came into the room cautiously, none of the enthusiasm she'd shown when she'd been an adorable little girl. "Nobody calls me Lala any more. I'm not a kid."</p>
<p>Stiles snorted. "You're half my age. You're still a kid."</p>
<p>"Half?" she asked, looking at him like he was crazy. "Since when is thirteen half of eighteen?"</p>
<p>Yeah, shit, he was eighteen in this timeline. But there was no use admitting he was wrong.</p>
<p>"Thirteen is half of eighteen ever since I petitioned the Fields Medal commission to have the mathematics changed forever."</p>
<p>"You're making that up," she said in a deadpan tone that very nearly matched the way Malia spoke most of the time.</p>
<p>"Nope," he said, grinning wider. "It's one-hundred percent the absolute truth, well almost ninety-nine maybe." He tipped his flat hand side to side. "Ninety-nine point five, give or take."</p>
<p>"Whatever," Amelia said, rolling her eyes hard enough to damage something. Thank god the kid was a werewolf.</p>
<p>"Lala," Stiles said, holding both hands over his heart as if she'd wounded him, "would I ever lie to you?"</p>
<p>But instead of giggling the way she would have a few years ago, Amelia burst into tears.</p>
<p>"Lala," Stiles said, reaching for her, she went to pull away but, perhaps remembering that Stiles was human and unable to protect himself from her strength, stood stiffly instead. "Sweetheart, please tell me why you're crying."</p>
<p>"I don't fucking know," she said, growling angrily as she swiped at the tears that continued despite her wish for them not to.</p>
<p>"Hormones?" Stiles asked sympathetically. He'd had a front row seat to the hell Allison and Malia had gone through. He'd been very glad more than once that he wasn't a female shifter. They sure as hell got the short end of the stick when it came to puberty. Stiles's own obsession with masturbation—in two fucking timelines, geez—was a mild inconvenience by comparison. "It won't last forever."</p>
<p>"Doesn't matter," Amelia mumbled. "No one will be left by then anyway."</p>
<p>"Left?" Stiles asked, his heart rate kicking into overdrive as memories from the old timeline flashed into his brain. "What… W–What do you mean by that?"</p>
<p>Had Stiles accidentally affected Amelia's abilities before he'd gotten control of his spark? Had he given her the ability to predict the future?</p>
<p>"Stiles," Amelia said, hugging him and pushing him back onto the sofa at the same time. "Are you, like, having a heart attack? Derek!" Her high-pitched scream for her alpha nearly pierced his skull. Holy shit.</p>
<p>"Lala," Stiles said, hugging the kid to him. "I'm okay. I'm… You said there would be no one left. What did you mean?"</p>
<p>Amelia gave him a startled look.</p>
<p>"What happened?" Derek asked, quickly checking the room for enemies before rushing to Stiles's side. "Shit, your heart rate is going through the roof."</p>
<p>"I'm okay," Stiles managed to mumble between deep, gulping breaths. He hadn't been this close to a panic attack in years.</p>
<p>"You're really not," Derek said, glaring at Amelia. "What did you do?"</p>
<p>"Whoa, hey, whoa," Stiles said, managing to hold the kid next to him and stop her instinctive flight from the room. "Not her fault. Just a… Just a minor panic attack." He wrapped his arm around Amelia's shoulders and hugged the girl to him. She was shaking violently—almost as violently as Stiles had been a half-minute earlier. "Sorry, Lala, I didn't mean to scare you."</p>
<p>"What. Happened?" Derek ground out through clenched teeth, still glaring at their youngest pack member.</p>
<p>"I don't know," Amelia said, her voice rising with every word. "I don't know. <em>I don't know!</em>"</p>
<p>That last denial was at such a high pitch Stiles's ears were ringing. With an alpha werewolf's hearing ability Stiles was surprised Derek's weren't bleeding.</p>
<p>"Go to your room. I'll deal with you later!"</p>
<p>"Derek, what the hell?" Stiles said, standing up and pushing his sister behind him. "Don't speak to her like that. She didn't do anything."</p>
<p>"Don't tell me how to deal with my own pack!" Derek snapped, the words a low growl in the back of his throat.</p>
<p>"Your pack?" Stiles asked, raising his voice as his own anger cleared away the last of his panic. "Last I checked this was <em>our</em> pack."</p>
<p>"You left for three years," Derek growled dismissively. "Things change. <em>People</em> change."</p>
<p>"And alpha werewolves turn into assholes!"</p>
<p>Derek's head rocked back as if Stiles's had punched him.</p>
<p>"I'm the asshole?" Derek asked, his anger growing. "I'm the asshole? How am I the asshole? You're the one who left. The one who barely had time to talk to me for the past three years." He ground his teeth together and added angrily, "You're the one who freaked out when you woke up with me this morning,"</p>
<p>"That was…" The words got stuck in his throat.</p>
<p>"You can't even explain what I did wrong," Derek said, turning around and leaving the room before Stiles could think of something to say.</p>
<p>"Stiles," Amelia whispered, her tears flowing down her cheeks again. "I didn't mean to upset you."</p>
<p>"Oh, Lala," Stiles said, turning to hug his sister again. "None of this was your fault. Me and Derek, we're complicated."</p>
<p>"You're mates?"</p>
<p>He wasn't really sure how to answer that right now. He shrugged. "My homecoming has been a lot more eventful than planned."</p>
<p>"I overheard Dad and Papa talking about Illiandra. Did she really try to kill you?"</p>
<p>"Yeah," Stiles admitted, unwilling to keep crucial information from any member of the pack. Illiandra was not to be trusted. They all needed to know that, but he'd be checking with Peter and Dad to make sure they'd been aware Amelia had been in hearing range. The last thing they needed was for the young werewolf to learn there had once been a timeline where she'd died at a very young age. "Dad thinks Illiandra will go to jail for a very long time. I'm not looking forward to the trial and all the legal stuff, but we can't let her try to do that to someone else."</p>
<p>"Won't she just get out of jail? She was always threatening to turn herself into a snake and bite me. Can't she just do that and escape?"</p>
<p>"She was never strong enough to do that." And with her magic now purified and a part of the telluric currents she never would be. Stiles smiled at the teenage disdain Amelia held for the woman who'd betrayed them all. "Did you tell anyone about the threats she made?"</p>
<p>Amelia twisted her lips into a pouting frown. "Why bother. You'll all be gone soon anyway."</p>
<p>"Gone?" Stiles asked, trying to keep his heart rate steady so that Derek didn't rush in and start yelling again.</p>
<p>"They all start college in a few months. It'll be me and the grumpy alpha all alone in the house."</p>
<p>"Slight exaggeration," Stiles said, breathing a little easier now that he knew it was normal teenager worries and not a precognitive vision of the actual future. "Dad and Papa and Hal and Camden will still be here. And Chris and Ally's minions live in the cabins behind the main house." He tickled her the way he used to when she was little. She raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. "And Lydia and I are moving back in."</p>
<p>"It won't be the same."</p>
<p>"No," Stiles agreed. "It won't, but nothing stays the same forever. Life is always changing and evolving and adapting and we change and evolve and adapt with it."</p>
<p>"I guess," Amelia said, sounding unconvinced.</p>
<p>"Talking about evolving," Stiles said, wanting to repair the rift he'd accidentally caused between Amelia and Derek.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Hey," Derek said when he realized Amelia was hovering in the hallway. "It's okay to come in. I'm sorry I yelled at you. I was scared and tired and… But that is no excuse. I shouldn't have yelled at you and I'm really sorry."</p>
<p>The kid moved closer. "It's okay," she said, her voice so quiet it was nearly a whisper. "I yell at everyone all the time."</p>
<p>Derek smiled at the reminder. "I don't have the excuse of fluctuating hormones." He wasn't willing to let himself off the hook that easily. "But thank you for understanding."</p>
<p>"Stiles said you can do a full shift now. You can turn into a wolf?"</p>
<p>"Yeah," Derek said, still amazed that it felt so natural already. He hadn't had any trouble going from two legs to four earlier that morning. "Do you want to see?"</p>
<p>She nodded eagerly.</p>
<p>"Okay," he said, finally recognizing a problem. "But…um…I'll just close the door for a moment. I don't want to tear through another set of clothes and your dads will kill me if they think I acted inappropriately."</p>
<p>She giggled and he was reminded of the adorable four-year-old Peter and Noah had rescued nearly a decade ago.</p>
<p>"I'll only be a minute."</p>
<p>"All right, but if you and Stiles are messing with me…"</p>
<p>"We would never," Derek said, exaggerating his outrage enough for the kid to laugh again. "One minute and I'll be right out."</p>
<p>She closed the door, staying on the outside of Derek's office. He quickly stripped off and shifted into his wolf shape. And that's when he realized he needed hands to turn the door knob.</p>
<p>He barked, hoping Amelia would forgo the opportunity to tease him.</p>
<p>Yeah, he wasn't that lucky.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Julia Baccari's home was a neat and tidy cottage just outside the Hale pack territory. She smiled warmly when she saw Halwyn but her mood faltered when she realized Peter was with him.</p>
<p>"Hi?" she said, making the word into a question.</p>
<p>"You didn't sense us coming?" Halwyn asked, apparently noticing something Peter couldn't.</p>
<p>Julia touched her fingers to her forehead and rubbed just over her left eye. "No, I've…" She frowned and rubbed her head again. "I've had a mild headache for days. It must be interfering with my other senses."</p>
<p>"We just dropped by to see how you're doing."</p>
<p>"Another mandatory part of my treatment?" Julia asked wryly, but she didn't seem overly upset.</p>
<p>"Just a follow up," Halwyn said casually. "We like to make sure our recovered patients know they have a support system, someone to call if there's a problem."</p>
<p>Julia nodded and gave him a soft smile. "And the werewolf extra?"</p>
<p>Halwyn laughed softly. "Peter survived a similar experience. He's just here to let you know you're not alone. You have people around you who will understand and support you through any difficulties."</p>
<p>Peter nodded, careful to hide his surprise. This meeting wasn't going the way he'd expected, but he trusted Halwyn. Some days he seemed as powerful as Stiles with his ability to discern certain things about the supernatural people around him.</p>
<p>"And your alpha is okay with this?" Julia asked, sounding skeptical.</p>
<p>"Of course," Peter said, not bothering to correct the assumption that Derek was his alpha.</p>
<p>"Okay, well…um… Thanks, I guess."</p>
<p>"You're very welcome," Peter said, following Halwyn's lead.</p>
<p>Julia invited them in for a cup of lemon-grass-and-ginger tea—never Peter's favorite—and then they spoke for nearly an hour about her new home and her plans for the future, touching on subjects of the humans living nearby and recent news articles in the local papers. Julia seemed open and honest and nothing like the crazy, power-hungry Darach she'd been in the old timeline.</p>
<p>Just like Peter, it seemed Julia Baccari's actions in the old timeline had been driven by anger and fear and a need for vengeance. Once she'd had a chance to recover her sanity she was almost too nice. It might even have been a little sickening. Peter really hoped that wasn't what had happened to him. He had a ruthless reputation to uphold, even if those closest to him knew it was mostly an act.</p>
<p>"It's been good to see you," Halwyn said, finally standing up from his chair and readying to leave. "I'm very glad you're doing well."</p>
<p>"Thanks for checking in," Julia said, nodding at Peter and including him in her thank you.</p>
<p>Peter was still pondering what they'd seen when he climbed into Halwyn's respectable, but seriously ugly, sedan and the hellhound started to drive them home.</p>
<p>"It's not her," Halwyn said eventually. "Her power isn't stronger. If anything she's getting weaker."</p>
<p>"Are you sure?" Peter asked reflexively, even though he knew Halwyn wouldn't say it if he wasn't positive he was right.</p>
<p>Halwyn slowed the car to a stop at a red light and turned to face Peter. "That headache she mentioned, it's the side-effect of a draining spell. Someone is slowly stealing her power, but it's so slow I can't track where it's going."</p>
<p>"Someone can do what Stiles does?"</p>
<p>"I doubt whoever is doing it is as powerful as Stiles," Halwyn said, glancing at the traffic lights when they turned green. He got the car moving again. "And the spell probably involves a whole lot of props and enchanted items etcetera. Druids are very big on using augmentation items to guide and control their spells."</p>
<p>"Deaton?" Peter asked, torn between wanting his family to never have to deal with that rotten druid again and the need to feel the man's limbs tear as Peter slowly wrenches them off his body. Yeah, there was no way he ended up as sickly sweet as Julia Baccari.</p>
<p>"Maybe," Halwyn said, shaking his head slightly. "I never actually met the man so I only ever touched his residual magic—what was left at the clinic, the spell he did on Derek—but to be honest, I don't <em>think</em> so."</p>
<p>"So that narrows it down to <em>every</em> magic user in the world?"</p>
<p>Halwyn gave him a wry smile. "At least we know it's a magic user."</p>
<p>"Better than nothing, I suppose."</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Derek pushed the cart through the supermarket, trying really hard to stay focused on what was on his shopping list. He had no idea what had gone wrong between him and Stiles. The last three years had been hard for both of them, or at least that's what he'd thought.</p><p>Stiles had been home nearly twenty-four hours and yet he'd never felt farther away.</p><p>Maybe Stiles hadn't missed Derek quite as much as he'd missed the kid. And hell, he wasn't a kid anymore. He was eighteen and he'd already completed a master's degree in criminal justice, and degrees in computer science and cyber security <em>and</em> law enforcement investigation and interviewing. With a few years on-the-job experience he'd probably be better qualified to run for Sheriff than Noah.</p><p>"Oh, sorry," a woman said when she bumped into his cart. Derek took a step back and waited for her to get whatever she was reaching for from the shelf. "Oh, hey, you're Derek Hale."</p><p>He didn't bother smiling. Most people in town knew who he was. Not many of them had the guts to approach him though.</p><p>"Sorry," the woman said, holding her hand out as if she planned to shake his. When he just glared—he never touched anyone who wasn't pack; not after what Deaton had done to him—she hesitated and then pulled it back. "I'm Julia. Julia Baccari. I…um… I know Hal."</p><p>"I know who you are," he said, bluffing just a little. He knew who she was now that she'd told him her name. He'd never actually seen her before.</p><p>"Oh, okay, well that's good then… I…ah… I think." She stepped back and grabbed her grocery cart, keeping it between them like some sort of shield. "It was… um… nice meeting you."</p><p>"Sure," Derek said. In other circumstances he might have found the nervous woman's attempt at being friendly amusing, but between the confusion he woke with, the fight with his mate, and the way he'd treated Amelia it was a pretty shitty day.</p><p>He turned his attention back to the shopping list and focused on getting what they needed so he could get the hell out of town and go brood in his office back home.</p><p>Yeah, his life totally rocked.</p><p>Not.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"We've got another one, Sheriff," Jordan Parrish said, stepping into Noah's office and then closing the door behind him.</p><p>"Same threefold death?" Noah asked, probably unnecessarily. He knew how these sacrifices worked. Three deaths. A six day break. Rinse and Repeat.</p><p>"Lifeguard at the swimming pool."</p><p>That caught him by surprise. The very first death in the old timeline had been a lifeguard at the local pool. "Virgin?"</p><p>"Unlikely," Jordan said, frowning. "He's a thirty-seven-year-old father of two. Ex-marine."</p><p>"Warriors?"</p><p>Jordan shrugged, shook his head, and glanced down at the notes he'd made.</p><p>It was such a relief to have someone at the Sheriff's office who knew what was really going on. Jordan had joined their pack a few years ago after he'd saved a woman from a burning building without getting any burns himself. They'd known Jordan was unaware of his hellhound side in the old timeline, so Noah and Halwyn had approached him immediately afterward to explain. He'd joined the pack a few weeks later and he was proving to be just as dedicated to helping others in this timeline as he was in the old one.</p><p>"The first victim was a twenty-three-year-old virgin who worked at the local supermarket."</p><p>"I know working in retail can mean dealing with nightmare customers," Noah said, trying to lighten the mood just a little. Police work would swallow them whole if they let the weight continually drag them down. "But it doesn't really place her in the warrior category. Are we missing something?"</p><p>"We have to be," Jordan said, grimacing. They'd researched the hell out of the rituals that involved threefold deaths, but this killer sure as fuck wasn't following the rules.</p><p>"What about the telluric currents? The first one missed by half a mile."</p><p>"This one looks even further off."</p><p>Noah rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Okay, let's go process the crime scene. We'll call the pack together tonight and see if we can come up with some theories."</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Stiles was deliberately trying to keep his thoughts focused on the current timeline but no matter how hard he tried he still felt more like his twenty-six-year-old self than the eighteen-year-old he was supposed to be.</p><p>It was probably fruitless to even attempt it. Life's lessons couldn't exactly be unlearned.</p><p>But that left him with a dilemma.</p><p>Until twenty-four hours ago he'd loved Derek—the one in this timeline—for nearly half his life. But that connection paled in comparison to the one they'd had in the old timeline. Derek and Stiles had been very different people and they'd found each other and loved each other in the middle of a war. Everything had been more urgent, more intense, more heartbreaking, more… everything.</p><p>The Derek in this timeline would never grow into that man because their life experiences were literally worlds apart.</p><p>So that left Stiles with a choice.</p><p>Did he try to set aside the memories of another life time and attempt to be the mate Derek had met in this timeline and risk hurting him over and over for the rest of the lives as he remembered and mourned the other Derek, or did he break the guy's heart now and let him find love elsewhere? He was a great guy, and Stiles knew this Derek would find someone worthy of his time and who would love him for who he was in this life.</p><p>"Stiles?" Isaac asked, sitting beside him before Stiles even realized he was in the room. "Anything I can do to help?"</p><p>Yeah there was a reason Scott McCall had pulled away from Stiles and gotten closer to Isaac. Even in this timeline the kid was too nice to be real. Was it weird that Stiles hadn't even given the "True Alpha" a thought until this moment?</p><p>"I don't suppose you want to watch Star Wars with me?"</p><p>Isaac chuckled. "I haven't watched that movie in at least three years."</p><p>But he sifted through the DVD collection until he found the right one, put it in the player, and then sat back on the sofa and encouraged Stiles closer. The scrolling words had barely begun moving up the screen when Aiden and Lydia, Ethan, Danny, Allison and Amelia joined them, turning their movie time into the type of puppy pile Stiles had once taken for granted. Malia joined them twenty minutes into the first movie.</p><p>Stiles knew now what it was like to lose these people, to watch them die at the hands of the enemy, to feel helpless and broken and desperate to recover everything he'd lost.</p><p>Changing the timeline, changing their lives for the better was worth it, so worth it. How could he regret something that saved so many lives?</p><p>Halfway through the movie he caught sight of Derek leaning against the wall, watching his pack with a gentle smile on his face.</p><p>Yeah.</p><p>No matter the fallout, resetting the timeline had been the right choice.</p><p> </p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Derek wasn't really looking forward to the pack meeting.</p><p>His reaction was most likely due to the reason for this one, but it was also because he still hadn't found a way to fix what had gone wrong with his plans to woo Stiles into the relationship he wanted. And he didn't really want the rest of the pack to notice the strain between them.</p><p>Fortunately the moment Noah and Jordan arrived they got straight down to business.</p><p>"It's called the threefold death and it's typically used by a dark druid, a darach, to increase their own power."</p><p>"Deaton?" Isaac asked. Derek tried to hide the shudder that rolled through him but it was a little hard when most of the pack turned to look at him simply at the mention of the druid's name.</p><p>"There's no sign of him in town," Noah confirmed. "If it is him, he's well hidden."</p><p>"What about Marin Morrell?" Derek asked.</p><p>Apparently Deaton had a sister that none of them had met. She hadn't come to town when her brother had gone missing, so they had no idea if that made her more likely or less likely to be involved.</p><p>Noah shook his head. "Still no leads for her either."</p><p>"What about Jennifer Blake?" Stiles asked.</p><p>"Who?" Isaac asked.</p><p>"Oh um…" Stiles looked worried as he stumbled over his words. "Sorry. Mixing up names in my head. I…um… What's her name? She was Kali's emissary."</p><p>"Julia Baccari," Peter said, nodding toward Halwyn. "We paid her a visit earlier today. It's not her."</p><p>Derek felt fucking ill.</p><p>"Julia Baccari? And you're sure it's not her."</p><p>Fuck, he could almost feel the strands of the spell Deaton had used on him a decade ago crawling up his body. And that sort of panicked reaction was not something he could hide from a room full of supernatural people who cared about him.</p><p>"Der?" Stiles asked, moving closer.</p><p>Fuck it. He wasn't going to hide or lie or refuse help. "Activate your spark. Check me. Check for…"</p><p>"Yeah," Stiles said, nodding and activating his spark immediately.</p><p>Fuck, how was he glowing even more brightly now than he was last night. It was as if he'd been given a double-shot power boost.</p><p>"Der, it's okay. You're clear. There's nothing…" He moved closer and placed a warm hand on his forearm. He lowered his voice to a whisper no one else in the room would be able to hear. "Derek, you're fine. Whatever you're imagining right now, it's not true."</p><p>His pack gave him a few minutes to regain his composure, but the conversation eventually cycled back to Julia Baccari.</p><p>"Son," Noah said, moving closer, "you doing okay?"</p><p>"Yeah," Derek said, giving the man who'd been a better father to him than his own a warm smile. He was embarrassed, but this was his pack, his family, and he knew that everyone in this room would die to protect everyone in this room. Him included. "Sorry to scare you. I just… I ran into Julia Baccari at the supermarket earlier today. She tried to shake my hand."</p><p>Peter, Noah, Jordan, and Chris all turned to Halwyn. "She's clear. She's not the darach. I'm certain of that, but her power is being stolen by someone."</p><p>"Stolen?" Stiles asked curiously.</p><p>Halwyn nodded. "Someone is draining her very slowly." He frowned. "So slowly that I couldn't trace it back to a source."</p><p>"How long does she have before it kills her?" Camden asked.</p><p>"It won't," Halwyn answered confidently. "The drain is so slow that it would take three lifetimes before Julia even noticed more than a slight headache and a small loss in sensitivity."</p><p>"So why do it? Why would someone bother?"</p><p>"I don't know," Halwyn said. "It would need to be a thousand times stronger to even make a difference to whoever is receiving it."</p><p>"Could they be drawing from thousands of different victims at the same time?" Peter asked.</p><p>Halwyn nodded. "Maybe, but even then it's problematic. It would take decades to track down that many druids and magic users."</p><p>"And then the geography creates a new set of problems," Stiles added. "The farther away they are the more effort that's required and the less return for the caster."</p><p>"Exactly," Halwyn agreed. "It's possible the caster is a very long way from us and that's why the effect on Julia is so low."</p><p>"Or," Chris said, always the most pragmatic and able to imagine motive from a more villainous point of view, "they're setting up a network and plan to pull the power all at once."</p><p>"Is that possible?" Derek asked, hoping like fuck that wasn't true.</p><p>Stiles nodded grimly as he deactivated his spark.</p><p>Yeah, it was definitely not Derek's day.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Jordan barely knew Stiles. He'd already been off to college before Jordan moved to Beacon Hills, but he still knew plenty about him. Noah talked about his son all the time and the rest of the pack adored him. Even when he'd been absent for so long he'd been at the core of the pack. He'd been Peter's and Jackson's alpha when he was only nine, and that was a hell of a thing to imagine.</p><p>But when he'd activated his spark Jordan had not been prepared for how bright the young man glowed. All supernatural species glowed a little. Thanks to his newfound skills as a hellhound it was how Jordan was able to tell who was human and who wasn't. He would have to ask Halwyn if there was a correlation between a supernatural's glow and their strength. He'd never noticed such a huge difference before. Every other supernatural in the room had the gentle aura he'd learned to associate with their species, but Stiles glowed like a beacon.</p><p>Jordan was very glad when Stiles deactivated his spark and he appeared to be human once more.</p><p>"So I guess the question now," Noah said, "is whether we're dealing with one problem or two."</p><p>He nodded to Jordan, giving him the floor.</p><p>"The threefold murders aren't following any of the rituals as we understand them. We've only had two so far but neither of them has been on the telluric currents. And the two victims seem to fall into different categories. The obvious ones are 'virgin' and 'warrior' but neither of them fits into both categories nor fits into any of the others."</p><p>He glanced at Lydia and was glad to see her accepting Aiden's embrace. They all hated that she had the ability to predict death but not to stop it. Even with his connection to death, Jordan was very glad he had no precognitive skills.</p><p>"So the murderer is either incompetent or they know something we don't," Chris surmised.</p><p>"Which is basically the same questions we have regarding the spell on Julia."</p><p>"So where do we go from here?" Noah asked, turning to his son rather than his alpha. Jordan glanced at Derek and saw the same surprise on his face as he was sure graced his own.</p><p>"Research," Stiles said, reactivating his spark. Books—old and new—started to appear on the table in the middle of the room.</p><p>"Stiles," Noah said in a tone that suggested he was warning him against dangerous behavior.</p><p>"Oh," Stiles said, shrugging as he again turned off his spark. "I bounced them to different locations first. Kind of like the magical equivalent of a VPN." He shrugged. "May as well use the computer science degree for something."</p><p>Noah shook his head, pinched the bridge of his nose, and then turned back to the rest of the group. "Volunteers?"</p><p>They quickly divided into groups—Natalie, Lorraine, and most of the younger pack members to research with Stiles, Peter and Chris to check in with their own underground networks, Jordan and Noah to continue with their police investigation, and the rest to gather enough food to keep them all going.</p><p>At least with it being summer break they didn't need to worry about the kids getting to school on time the next day.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Three hours later Stiles was ready to tear his hair out. And yeah, he planned to grow out his hair now that he remembered how much better he looked with it a little longer. But longer hair was not going to solve his current problem.</p><p>None of the books he'd called to him were the right one.</p><p>It seemed ridiculous that something he could do as a clueless nine-year-old was somehow beyond him now. How could he get the exact book he'd been looking for then and not do it now when he had the experience of two time lines?</p><p>"What the hell, Stilinski?" Lydia asked. She only called him that these days when she was truly pissed with him. Yeah, this was not going to be pretty. "This is the third book I've gone through that mentions how to nullify a mate bond. What does that have to do with our current problem?"</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>It had nothing to do with any of their problems. Only the one Stiles was trying to ignore.</p><p>And the devastation on Derek's face broke his heart.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Hey there, cutie," the waitress asked with a wide smile. "What can I get you?"</p><p>"A date," Boyd said before he could drag the stupid words back into his mouth.</p><p>"Hmm," she said, apparently not offended. "Off the menu or special order?"</p><p>He laughed. "Sorry, I'm not usually so…weird."</p><p>"It's okay," the waitress said with a casual shrug. "You're cute enough to get away with it."</p><p>Boyd ducked his head and tried not to blush. He'd never thought of himself as cute. He gave her a smile but had no idea what to say next.</p><p>The waitress glanced at the watch on her wrist. "My shift ends in an hour and a half. If you want to wait to order I'll eat with you when I'm finished."</p><p>"Great," he said, relieved to have that sorted.</p><p>"But you're paying," she said in a no-nonsense tone. "If I could afford to eat here, I wouldn't be doing this job."</p><p>"Of course," Boyd said, suddenly very glad his Tinder date had stood him up. "I'm happy to wait."</p><p>She winked, topped up his water glass, and moved to the next table.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>"Any luck?" Natalie asked when Chris stepped back into the meeting area nearly six hours after he'd left.</p>
<p>"Not much," he said, collapsing onto the sofa where Natalie had been reading yet another old, smelly book that had very little information on rituals to boost or steal someone's power. "Confirmation that the murders are supposed to be in groups of three and more powerful when they're performed on the telluric currents but nothing new."</p>
<p>"Same here," she said, leaning forward to carefully place the book onto the coffee table. She stripped off the disposable cotton gloves, very glad to see the dust and grime hadn't penetrated them to stain her skin. At least something had worked the way it should have. Of course it had helped that Stiles had used some magic on them to make sure the gloves were a barrier to both physical and magical detritus. Natalie really didn't want to know where these books had been kept. They smelled terrible.</p>
<p>She leaned back into Chris's embrace. It had been weird at first to accept such casual physical affection, but she'd grown used to it over the years. She'd actually missed it a whole lot more than she'd anticipated when she, Lorraine, Stiles, and Lydia had been in LA.</p>
<p>"How have you settled into the lake house? Everything okay?"</p>
<p>"Yeah," she said, wriggling a little to settle deeper into Chris's embrace. "Lorraine and Lydia both refuse to go into the basement, but that could be their attempt to stick me with everyone's laundry."</p>
<p>Chris chuckled that deep, amused sound she'd always found ridiculously sexy.</p>
<p>"You could always move into the cabin," he said casually. But Natalie could feel the sudden tension in his muscles.</p>
<p>"Your cabin?" she asked, trying to understand what he was suggesting.</p>
<p>He shrugged. This time the movement was as far from <em>casual</em> as a shrug could be. "The minions moved out over a year ago."</p>
<p>"I can't believe they actually like us calling them that," Natalie said with a soft laugh.</p>
<p>"There's no accounting for taste," Chris agreed with a grin on his handsome face. She couldn't see it, but she knew it was there just from his tone of voice. "Ally goes to college in a few months, and I am going to be rattling around that place all alone."</p>
<p>"You're five-hundred paces to the south of the pack house," she reminded him.</p>
<p>"And so alone," he said, sighing dramatically.</p>
<p>She laughed at his theatrics. "So you're looking for a house mate?" She couldn't resist the chance to tease. "Lorraine might be interested. She does have a problem with the basement at the lake house after all."</p>
<p>"Which is why I suggested she move into the pack house," Chris said. He lowered his voice. "She's very good with Amelia."</p>
<p>The weird part about that statement was that it was absolutely true. Every time they'd come home in the last year Amelia's hormonal tantrums had become less explosive. It had been noticeable enough for Peter to beg Lorraine to come home more often.</p>
<p>Lydia's presence had held a similar effect on Allison and Malia when they'd been going through the same thing. Maybe it was a banshee-shifter thing. Natalie didn't claim to understand it. Hell, she'd spent years trying to pretend none of this was real enough to affect her nice, normal life.</p>
<p>She glanced around the room. It was one in the morning and nearly the whole pack was either still reading through very old books that Stiles had acquired via magical VPN transport or sleeping in what Lydia affectionately labeled "puppy piles."</p>
<p>Yeah, normal wasn't an adjective she could use to describe her life anymore.</p>
<p>"So you'll be all alone in that big cabin you had purpose built for Ally and her minions?"</p>
<p>"Yep," Chris said, tacking on a deep sigh.</p>
<p>"That is so manipulative," she said on a laugh, turning in his arms so that she could see his face. They were so close—mere inches apart—and she couldn't resist. She leaned a little closer and saw his surprise, but he didn't pull away. He grinned and somehow that made her bold.</p>
<p>She closed the gap and pressed their lips together, moaning softly when he slid his tongue over her bottom lip. Arousal flashed through her and it took another half second to remember they were in a room full of shifters able to smell things like that.</p>
<p>"Oh my god," Malia said loudly enough to wake anyone who'd been sleeping. "Finally."</p>
<p>"Malia," Allison chided softly.</p>
<p>"What?" Malia asked, still ignoring social cues as if they didn't exist. "They've been dancing around each other for years. It's about damn time."</p>
<p>Chris chuckled and that made Natalie smile. "Really?" she asked him, wondering how she'd missed his attraction to her. Had she been alone so long she'd forgotten what it felt like to be desired? Or had her ex undermined her confidence enough for her to not notice?</p>
<p>"So," Chris said, talking to her as if the others didn't exist, "I have this big empty cabin far away from shifter noses where we can talk and maybe get some privacy. Wanna see it?"</p>
<p>"Yes," Natalie said, glad for the chance to spend time alone with this man.</p>
<p>"Good night every one," Chris said, somehow lifting off the couch with Natalie still clinging to him. Well that was kind of embarrassing, but when he wrapped an arm around her waist and turned her toward the door to a chorus of well wishes from the pack she couldn't find it in herself to regret it.</p>
<p>"I want to be a bridesmaid," Malia said in what she probably thought was a low voice, "but I'm not wearing a dress!"</p>
<p>And the weirdest part about the whole thing was that it was somehow absolutely perfect.</p>
<p>Yeah, who needed normal when she had a family like this one.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Derek smiled as two of his favorite people finally realized they were in love with each other. Just as Malia had said, it was about damn time. Both of them had been so focused on raising their kids—and by extension many of the other youngsters in the pack—that they'd forgotten they were important too.</p>
<p>It was wonderful to see them together.</p>
<p>But their timing seriously sucked. Well, from Derek's perspective at least.</p>
<p>After Lydia had pointed out the recurring theme in the books Stiles had magicked into the house, he'd sent them back and produced others. They hadn't found what they were looking for but at least these ones seemed to cover the correct topics.</p>
<p>But Derek remembered what Stiles had told him all those years ago.</p>
<p>The books that had arrived before he'd realized where they were coming from had always covered exactly what he'd been interested in at the time.</p>
<p>And apparently so had the first lot from tonight.</p>
<p>Stiles was thinking of breaking their mate bond.</p>
<p>How had everything changed so damn fast?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Noah glanced at his watch and realized it was closer to two AM than he'd planned. Damn he was tired. The worst part was that most of what they'd done at the station was to back up the deputies on duty. For some reason it had been an extraordinarily busy night and if Noah hadn't been right there and seemingly available he would have approved overtime for a couple of the other deputies.</p>
<p>The budget couldn't really afford it though, so he'd left Jordan to work through a couple of ideas on the ritual murders and dealt with a couple of the calls that came in by himself.</p>
<p>One of them was a noise complaint from a serial complainer who took offense to every single bark from a neighbor's dog. Apparently the dog had gotten a little overexcited when he found a squirrel in his territory, but the owner had quickly handled the situation and pulled the dog inside his house. Noah wanted to apologize for the way the neighbor was using the law to harass a dog owner for a dog's natural behavior, but the law was the law until it was changed, and until it was changed it was his duty to enforce it.</p>
<p>The second was a report of a break and enter in an abandoned factory on the edge of town. He considered calling for a supernatural back up, but he knew the building pretty well and it was very likely a raccoon foraging rather than any particular threat. He planned to take a quick look around, make sure nothing was on fire—they'd caught a serial arsonist a few months ago, but Noah never underestimated the human notion of being a copycat—and then do a more thorough check in the daylight hours.</p>
<p>He stayed in the car and shone the spotlight on the building.</p>
<p>He was not expecting the yellow eye flare of a terrified young werewolf.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Beacon Hills? You grew up in Beacon Hills? Me too."</p>
<p>"Seriously?" Boyd asked. "How did we never meet?"</p>
<p>"Well, I suppose 'grew up' is a slight exaggeration. My dad and I moved away when I was twelve. My mom… She… wasn't very nice and she tried to hurt me. When she got caught and sent to jail Dad thought getting lost in LA was preferable to dealing with all the local gossip."</p>
<p>"Geez," Boyd said. "You're Erica Reyes. God, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."</p>
<p>She waved his concern away. "It's fine. One of the kids who came to help when I got sick in the shopping mall recognized the symptoms of mistletoe poisoning and told his dad. Lucky for me his dad was the sheriff of Beacon Hills."</p>
<p>"You mean Stiles? Stiles Stilinski?"</p>
<p>"Yeah," she said, blushing slightly. "I was kind of out of it when he was there. I'm pretty sure I called him Batman a couple times, but he called me Catwoman so at least he knew the comics."</p>
<p>"He saved my sister," Boyd said, sitting back with a bit of a stunned smile on his face. "She was abducted from the park and I was frantic and suddenly this skinny, pale kid was right there assuring me everything was going to be okay."</p>
<p>"Did it seem like he was in charge?" Erica asked.</p>
<p>"Yeah," Boyd said, nodding his head thoughtfully. "It really did. He was there with his dad and another man and Derek Hale—you know from that big family whose house nearly got burned down years ago?—and some other kids, but yeah, it definitely felt like he was the one telling the adults what to do."</p>
<p>"So weird that we grew up in the same town and both got rescued by Stiles," Erica said, a beautiful smile curling her lips. "It kind of feels like we were destined to meet."</p>
<p>"It does," Boyd agreed. "Enough for a second date?"</p>
<p>"Oh, honey," Erica said, winking at him. "Who are we to fight fate?"</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"The girl," she said, tilting her head toward the blonde woman talking animatedly as she and her date walked slowly down the pavement.</p>
<p>He nodded, crossed the road, and <em>accidentally</em> knocked into her as he walked past. It was LA and she barely even noticed. He smirked as he continued to weave his way between the early morning crowds.</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"Peter," Noah said urgently the moment Peter sleepily answered his phone. "I need you and Derek at the old biscuit factory on the edge of town. Five minutes ago."</p><p>Every pack member, supernatural hearing or not, was awake and moving by the time Noah finished his request.</p><p>"Just me and Derek?" Peter asked, already moving toward his car keys, the alpha right beside him.</p><p>"Yeah," Noah said, sounding a little calmer. "I've got an unknown beta wandering around."</p><p>"Stay in the car," Peter barked.</p><p>"Not stupid," Noah said, clearly annoyed. "That's why I'm calling for backup."</p><p>"Sorry," Peter said, regretting his outburst. He would never apologize for caring for his family, but insulting their intelligence was a different story, even if it was unintentional. "Do we know anything about this beta? Young? Old?"</p><p>"Very young, yellow eye shine. I think it might be Alec."</p><p>"Alec?" Derek asked out loud.</p><p>"Alec!" Stiles exclaimed inside his mind. Yeah, he'd forgotten about that part of the telepathic communications. Stiles might not have shifter-quality hearing but he wasn't above using Peter's to his advantage. And the twenty-six-year-old version from the old timeline wouldn't even hesitate the way the Stiles of this timeline used to. "I'm coming with you."</p><p>"No need," Peter said telepathically. "Derek will shine his alpha eyes at the kid and he'll come running like the good little puppy he was for Scott."</p><p>"I don't give a fuck what Scott told you," Stiles said, apparently angry enough to say the words out loud. "I know Alec's version and that's not how it went."</p><p>"Alec's version?" Derek asked as the three of them climbed into Peter's car. "And who the hell is Scott?"</p><p>"Ah…"</p><p>Peter had the sudden urge to growl at his stepson. If he was going to spill details of the other timeline then he needed a better way to hide his fucking gaffs.</p><p>"Scott is an old friend," Peter said, working with the truth as well as he could under the circumstances. "Remember that kid with the uneven jaw in primary school with Stiles?"</p><p>"Yeah," Derek said, scrunching up his face in confusion. "How is he involved in this?"</p><p>"Alec," Peter said, ignoring Derek's question since he couldn't answer it honestly, "is the last remaining survivor of a pack that was wiped out by hunters. We'd been hoping to find him when Stiles was in LA, but it seems he was able to cover more ground than we expected."</p><p>"So we're dealing with a traumatized kid?" Derek asked, his own experiences obviously on his mind.</p><p>"Yeah," Stiles said, apologizing silently into Peter's mind. "His pack was isolated and peaceful but it didn't stop hunters from killing them. Alec was the only survivor." Stiles rubbed both hands down his face. "But he spent his whole life being warned away from other werewolves, other packs, other alphas. If you flash your red eyes at him he will react in panic."</p><p>"So how do we handle this?" Derek asked.</p><p>"Send my dad in."</p><p>"Seriously?" Peter asked, repeating the words "what the fuck!" over and over directly into Stiles's mind.</p><p>"I can make Dad invulnerable," Stiles said, trying to sound reasonable. "If Alec attacks, he won't even be able to scratch him."</p><p>"And you'll expose yourself to whoever else is in the area," Peter reminded him.</p><p>"Worth it," Stiles said stubbornly.</p><p>"No it's not," Derek growled. "I'm not you're average meathead alpha. I'll handle this and I'll make sure Alec doesn't panic."</p><p>"Der," Stiles started to say, but Derek cut him off.</p><p>"No," he said. "We're dealing with a young, terrified, traumatized werewolf who has lost everything he ever knew. If anyone can understand this kid it's me, so back the fuck off."</p><p>Stiles seemed stunned by the outburst. To be honest Peter was too.</p><p>But Derek wasn't wrong.</p><p>Scott "the true alpha moron" McCall would have charged in fangs out, eyes blazing and just expected the kid to believe he was the good guy. He wouldn't have had any concept of how Alec would react. Scott had always expected everyone to already know he was a True Alpha and therefore superior in every way.</p><p>As if.</p><p>"Derek's right," Peter said, earning himself a glare from Stiles. "He can handle this, and if it is Alec, he'll make sure he's not traumatized further."</p><p>"Fine," Stiles said, clearly annoyed.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Derek took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. He couldn't let his conflicted feelings about his mate affect him. Even if the lone beta wasn't Alec—and he planned to asked Peter and Noah why he wasn't aware of the kid earlier—chances were the werewolf was an omega and extremely fragile in an emotional sense. There was a reason hunters thought killing an omega was justified. They could very easily lose control and kill innocent bystanders.</p><p>Derek ignored Peter and Stiles. They seemed to be arguing telepathically—and yeah, Derek had not missed that when his mate was at college—so he stepped out of the car and moved toward the sheriff's vehicle.</p><p>Noah got out as Derek approached.</p><p>"Can you catch his scent?"</p><p>"Yeah," Derek said, the stench of fear was intense enough to make his eyes water. "He's just a terrified kid."</p><p>"Yeah," Noah agreed. "First time around we found him in LA."</p><p>"First time?" Derek asked, trying not to sound pissed about being out of the loop.</p><p>Noah shook his head and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I need to get more sleep."</p><p>"Yeah, sleep depravation sure doesn't help when you're keeping secrets."</p><p>"Derek," Noah said, sounding exhausted and emotional, "It's—"</p><p>Derek didn't want to hear it, not at that moment. "We have a terrified kid to find. Everything else can wait."</p><p>"Okay, yeah," Noah said. "How do you want to do this?"</p><p>"I'm just going to wander around till I find him."</p><p>"Should work," Noah agreed without an ounce of sarcasm. "And if he's just the bait in a trap?"</p><p>"Then no matter how much he wants to dissolve our mate bond, I'll expect Stiles to rescue me."</p><p>Noah seemed ready to defend Stiles or perhaps deny the accusation, but in the end he did neither. "I'll wait here."</p><p>Derek nodded. Careful to keep his body language and scent relaxed and open he moved toward the abandoned factory and followed the scent trail of a terrified kid.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"He's hurting."</p><p>"I know."</p><p>"We need to tell him something."</p><p>"Oh, yeah, that'll go down great. Oh, by the way, Der, I don't love you anymore because I remember this other guy and you pale by comparison."</p><p>"Wow," Peter said, shaking his head even though the conversation was entirely telepathic. "Someone learned to be a diva in college."</p><p>"What the fuck?" Stiles asked slowly.</p><p>"When did this become all about you?"</p><p>"That's not fair," Stiles said, his words faltering as if he kind of disagreed with his own assessment. "I don't want to hurt him."</p><p>"So don't," Peter said. "He's your mate, in this world and the last. That hasn't changed."</p><p>"But I have," Stiles said.</p><p>"So?"</p><p>"It's not fair to him."</p><p>"Bullshit," Peter said. "What's not fair is expecting him to be the person he was in a future where we all fucking died."</p><p>"Peter," Stiles whined. "It's—"</p><p>"Complicated," Peter said, cutting off his words. "I know, but just answer one question. Is he worth the effort?"</p><p>Stiles smiled softly. "Always."</p><p>Peter smirked just as Noah tapped on the window.</p><p>"Derek just rang. He found Alec. They're going to walk back to the house. It'll give them some time to talk and won't make Alec feel like he's trapped."</p><p>"Good call," Peter said, smirking again at Stiles. "Good alpha instincts."</p><p>Stiles rolled his eyes at Peter's attitude, but he didn't disagree.</p><p>"He wants us to check the area for anyone else and then head home."</p><p>"Okay," Peter said, climbing out of the car and sticking his nose in the air.</p><p>"Now who's being a diva?" Stiles asked telepathically.</p><p>"It takes a special skill. That doesn't make me a diva."</p><p>"Whatever you say, princess." But Stiles was smiling so hopefully Peter had prodded him into seeing things from a different perspective.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>The kid was quiet on the slow walk back to the pack house, and Derek was happy to give him the time to process everything he'd offered. Derek used the time to try and come up with an alternate arrangement if the kid decided Beacon Hills wasn't to his liking.</p><p>Derek had kept in semi-regular contact with several of the packs his family had scattered to after his mother's death. None of them had been eager to keep contact with him until after he'd defeated Ennis's pack at the tender age of seventeen, and then it had been the other way around. He'd had several petitions from blood relations asking to return to Beacon Hills. Derek had denied them all.</p><p>He'd briefly considered allowing Cora to return, but she'd made a couple of snide remarks about current members of his pack—Derek had never considered that she'd attended elementary school with Lydia, Stiles, Malia and Jackson—and he'd eventually decided she was not a good fit.</p><p>Her explosive, angry reaction to his decision hadn't done anything to change his mind.</p><p>Derek glanced at the kid walking beside him.</p><p>It had been clear from Alec's terrified reaction that he'd expected to be attacked for invading another pack's territory and it upset Derek more than he could explain. There were quiet a few packs between LA and Beacon Hills, so it was very likely Alec's reaction had been from experience.</p><p>Derek couldn't imagine turning away someone so alone and so very vulnerable. He'd do whatever he needed to help Alec feel safe again, even if that ultimately meant arranging for him to meet other, more traditional packs.</p><p>Alec stopped at the treeline when he saw the main house.</p><p>"You said your pack is different," he said, sounding nervous. "Different how?"</p><p>"Different in a lot of ways," Derek said. "I grew up like you, in a traditional pack, in this house surrounded by my family. When my mom, my alpha, was murdered I inherited her alpha spark. I wasn't much older than you at the time."</p><p>"So you're in charge of your whole family?"</p><p>"In a way," Derek admitted, "but probably not the family you think."</p><p>"Huh?"</p><p>"Most of my blood relatives left to find new packs. For a while it was just me and Uncle Peter. Then his boyfriend and his son joined us. And then we found Aiden and Ethan and Amelia after their pack was attacked by hunters. Jackson and Malia, and Lydia, her mom, and her grandmother joined us a little while later. Isaac, Camden and Halwyn were next. Allison and her father came to us for help when she was accidentally turned a few years later. She brought the minions in a few years after that."</p><p>"The minions?" Alec asked skeptically.</p><p>"It's just a pet name," Derek said with a smile. "They're just three really great guys who needed a home. They ended up building their own cabin down that path over there."</p><p>"Don't they get lonely with just the three of them?"</p><p>"They do sometimes," Derek admitted, "but they spent a long time trapped together, so they're mostly more comfortable when it's just the three of them." He shrugged. "And they know the pack is here when they need a little more conversation."</p><p>"My alpha would not have liked that."</p><p>Derek nodded. "Most alphas wouldn't." He grinned and shrugged again. "I'm not most alphas."</p><p>"So…I can stay with you? With your pack?"</p><p>"If that's what you want. We can help you find somewhere else safe if you decide you don't like it here."</p><p>Alec was tempted, that was very clear in his body language and in his scent, but he was also afraid.</p><p>He startled when the sheriff's vehicle turned into the driveway from the main road.</p><p>"W–What's the sh—" He gulped hard. "I can't go into foster care. The humans they'll—"</p><p>"Whoa," Derek said, reaching over to place his hand on Alec's shoulder the way Noah always did for him when he'd been a terrified fifteen-year-old. "Noah is pack. He's my uncle's husband."</p><p>"He's a werewolf?"</p><p>"Nope, human," Derek said easily. "And one of the best people I've ever known. You can trust him, Alec. And the rest of us, but we'll understand if it takes some time. You'll get as long as you need. No pressure."</p><p>"What about school and stuff?"</p><p>"We'll figure it out."</p><p>"You won't lock me in the basement or anything like that?"</p><p>"Nope," Derek said, wondering if the kid was just worrying or if he had a specific reason to fear it. "Come on. I'll grab something for us to eat." He stepped onto the porch and indicated the outdoor seating. "You don't have to come into the house if you're not ready."</p><p>"Okay," Alec said, moving onto the veranda cautiously.</p><p>"I can message my mate to bring us some food," he said, smiling at the reaction he'd get from Stiles when he asked him to make breakfast and bring it out to them and to meet Alec. "Or I can go grab some stuff myself and give you a few minutes to yourself."</p><p>"Can you stay?" Alec asked, already beginning to trust Derek a little bit.</p><p>"No problem," he said, pulling his phone from his back pocket. "What would you like to eat?"</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>The third murder was even more confusing. And more frustrating. And just like Lorraine's prophetic dream all kinds of messed up.</p>
<p>This victim had been torn apart.</p>
<p>The man was tied to a tree, facing the water like the others, but instead of the threefold death it seemed as if the killer had lost patience and torn him to shreds instead. It was almost like the scenes Victoria Argent had left behind and if the woman wasn't back to human and doing life in prison, Noah would have called the feds in to process the scene.</p>
<p>From the criminal file they'd found belonging to the victim he'd never been a nice guy, but was he annoying enough to get a serial killer to change their plans? Would a darach be so easily distracted?</p>
<p>"This one is almost on the telluric currents," Jordan said quietly, aware of the other deputies searching the area for a murder weapon.</p>
<p>"But without the threefold death…"</p>
<p>"Yeah, it's useless as a ritual sacrifice. Whoever is doing this seems totally clueless."</p>
<p>"Maybe not even a druid?" Noah asked, thinking out loud.</p>
<p>"The thought has crossed my mind too," Jordan admitted.</p>
<p>"Could this have been done by a werewolf?" It seemed unlikely. Victoria Argent had been a werecougar and much stronger than the average werewolf.</p>
<p>"Maybe an alpha." Jordan shook his head. "But one of us would have noticed an alpha werewolf wandering around town."</p>
<p>"And any other shifter strong enough to do something like this," Noah agreed. He grabbed his phone and dialed his son.</p>
<p>"Daddio," Stiles said, forcing cheer into his voice. Noah wasn't a big fan of the fake-it-till-you-make-it way of dealing with issues—well, not in this timeline—but he had problems other than his son's love life to deal with at that moment.</p>
<p>"Is Void still in his jar?"</p>
<p>"Of course," Stiles said. "It took a magical earthquake last time to release him. Peter's been trying to contact Noshiko but so far no luck."</p>
<p>"Could Void infect someone remotely? Maybe convince them to do something without their knowledge?"</p>
<p>"No," Stiles said, sounding certain. "Even after he was released he needed me to be physically and mentally exhausted to take full control."</p>
<p>"Did he make you stronger?"</p>
<p>"A little. About the same physical strength of a beta wolf."</p>
<p>"Okay, I guess I should be relieved that he's not behind these murders."</p>
<p>"Is there a specific reason you were worried?"</p>
<p>"The third murder looks like the killer lost control and just tore the victim apart."</p>
<p>"So you're looking for someone as strong as Ally or Derek or the twins in their hybrid form," he surmised correctly. "But if there was anyone in town that strong one of us would have noticed by now."</p>
<p>"Exactly."</p>
<p>"What about Theo?"</p>
<p>"Theo Raeken? You think he could do something like this."</p>
<p>"It fits his personality in both timelines. And we never did find all of the Dread Doctor's labs."</p>
<p>"And he doesn't leave a shifter scent or glow the way other supernaturals do," Jordan added.</p>
<p>"Okay, well it's a better theory than we've had up till now, but we still have an APB out for his arrest after the attacks on Tracy Stewart and Hayden Romero." Fortunately none of the teenage chimeras involved in the first timeline had been turned into lab experiments—other than Theo—but it hadn't stopped the kid from trying to continue the Dread Doctors experiments.</p>
<p>Halwyn had come up with the idea to pretend to find a list of students that Theo intended to target and they'd used that as an excuse to warn the parents of the teenagers involved. The failed attacks on Tracy and Hayden were the only reason they had for believing Theo was still in the area.</p>
<p>"And it might even explain why the Threefold sacrifices aren't right. The Dread Doctors mashed science and supernatural together all the time."</p>
<p>"So does that mean they're going to work anyway?" Stiles asked.</p>
<p>"Judging by this crime scene," Noah said, visually listing the evidence of a deadly temper tantrum, "I'm going to say no."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Still asleep?" Peter asked as he stepped into the kitchen to grab another coffee. Derek didn't need to ask who he was talking about.</p>
<p>He tilted his chin up and indicated the teenagers asleep on the sofa in the next room.</p>
<p>"Oh," Peter said, stopping when he realized his daughter was asleep on the sofa beside Alec.</p>
<p>"She stomped into the kitchen about an hour ago," Derek said. "When she caught his scent she asked a couple questions. Who is he? Where'd he come from? And then she wandered over to sit on the end of the sofa. She fell asleep about five minutes later."</p>
<p>"You think they might be mates," Peter said, not really making it a question. He shouldn't have been shocked. He'd seen similar behavior from Ethan and Jackson when they'd been growing up. Even in sleep they'd reached for each other, just as Alec and Amelia had done.</p>
<p>But Peter had known Alec in the old timeline so he'd just sort of assumed he knew him in this one too. He'd never shown any interest in finding a partner, and Peter had occasionally wondered if the young man he'd known was asexual. But Amelia had died in the old timeline long before Alec had come into their lives, and that and the loss of his family probably explained why he'd grown into the difficult, unfriendly man he'd become.</p>
<p>Peter wasn't even sure what had happened to him in the old timeline. He'd left the pack after the third time they'd been found and attacked, claiming he'd be safer alone. At the time he was probably right.</p>
<p>Now however, things were very different.</p>
<p>"Any luck contacting Noshiko?" Derek asked, out of the blue. Peter must have given him a look because he explained why he was asking. "I overheard Stiles talking to Noah on the phone. He asked about Void."</p>
<p>"Do you know why he was asking?" Peter asked, trying not to read more into it than was already there. They had enough problems to deal with.</p>
<p>"Lorraine's premonition came true," Derek said quietly. None of them would be surprised by that. Lorraine and Lydia were very accurate in predicting death. "Noah was wondering if Void could influence someone without actually getting out of his jar."</p>
<p>"Oh," Peter said, wondering that himself now.</p>
<p>"Stiles said no. He seemed pretty confident about that."</p>
<p>"He would know."</p>
<p>"Because of both timelines?" Derek asked mildly.</p>
<p>"Um…" Peter said, realizing far too late that they hadn't told Derek about Void or Noshiko in this timeline.</p>
<p>"I always wondered how you and Noah seemed to know what was going to happen before it actually happened," Derek said. "Time travel was not one of my guesses."</p>
<p>"Derek—"</p>
<p>But Derek cut him off before he could come up with a convincing enough explanation.</p>
<p>"I wouldn't have thought Stiles was in on the secret before college, but he came home knowing much more than he did before he left." He crossed his arms in a defensive tell that Peter hadn't seen Derek use in years. "And you and Noah treat him differently too. You turn to him more and include him in everything now. You didn't do that before he went to college."</p>
<p>"He had no memories of the other timeline," Peter admitted slowly, "until the night on the nemeton."</p>
<p>"Fuck," Derek said, clearly putting the pieces together in his mind. "I died. That's what he said. He begged me not to leave him again because I died."</p>
<p>"You weren't the only one," Peter admitted. "Stiles, Noah, and I were the only ones left in the end."</p>
<p>"The whole pack?"</p>
<p>"And our whole family. Only four of us survived the fire. Laura was one of them."</p>
<p>"She got away with it?"</p>
<p>No matter how much therapy Derek had accepted over the years he still held the core belief that he'd been somehow responsible for his sister's betrayal. Peter had explained Deucalion's influence and the reasons Laura had done what she'd done, but it wasn't exactly something he could prove. Short of resurrecting Laura and getting her to admit her guilt Derek would always carry that regret with him.</p>
<p>"She didn't get away with it, not really," Peter admitted. "In the old timeline she must have figured out that Kate planned to kill her because she grabbed you and ran. You spent six years in New York before she came back here and died."</p>
<p>"How did she die?"</p>
<p>"Derek, it doesn't matter because it didn't happen, not in this timeline," Peter said, not really wanting to pick open his own wounds. He'd failed his niece in two timelines and he'd learned to live with that, but he really didn't want to explain it all to Derek right now. Maybe one day, but not now.</p>
<p>"But it matters to Stiles," Derek said, confusing Peter for a moment. "He said he'd missed me but he was talking about the other timeline, not this one. He was talking about a different Derek."</p>
<p>"It's not that simple," Peter said, trying to derail that line of thought.</p>
<p>Derek shook his head sadly. "It <em>is</em> that simple. The man he loves is not the man I am."</p>
<p>"Derek—"</p>
<p>"I have work to do," he said, moving toward the exit. "Can you keep an eye on Alec and Amelia, please?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, okay," Peter said, letting Derek have some space for a little while. He needed to talk to Stiles before he said or did anything else anyway.</p>
<p>He glanced again at the two teenagers sleeping on the sofa and sincerely hoped their life together was much simpler.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"So we have the whole day," Boyd asked, smiling at the woman who'd agreed to a second date and then a third, "where would you like to spend it?"</p>
<p>"Is it weird that I've been thinking of Beacon Hills lately?"</p>
<p>"Probably not," Boyd admitted. "We could go for a drive. I haven't been home for a while. My sister will be happy to see me."</p>
<p>"Your younger sister?" Erica asked. "The one who still lives at home with your parents?"</p>
<p>"Oh, yeah," Boyd said with a slightly embarrassed laugh. "I guess it is a little early to ask you to meet my parents."</p>
<p>"But you want me too?"</p>
<p>"Of course," Boyd said, trying to keep his words casual and hoping like hell he wasn't going to scare Erica off by coming on too strong. "One day, when you're ready."</p>
<p>"And if I'm ready today?"</p>
<p>He grinned. "Then I'd say get in the car. We're burning daylight."</p>
<p>Erica laughed, grabbed her things, and locked the door behind her.</p>
<p>"Okay, let's do it."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~*~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Halwyn was exhausted.</p>
<p>He'd spent most of the past ten years overhauling the way Eichen House was run. When he'd first built it he'd intended for it to be a rehabilitation and treatment facility for non-humans. He'd included the cells under the basement for last resort treatments, well aware that there were some who were unable to control themselves enough among humans to keep the secret of the supernatural hidden.</p>
<p>From what he'd learned from Peter and Noah and their experiences in the old timeline he hadn't really been successful. He'd been horrified to find Eichen crawling with orderlies and other staff aligned to hunters groups, as well as horrific experiments being performed on both supernatural and human victims.</p>
<p>Eichen had been built to help people who had nowhere else to go and instead it had ended up a prison full of nightmares. And don't even get him started on how horrifying it had been to find the bandaged body of a human soldier dating back to the Second World War bricked into the wall in the basement. It didn't matter if the soldier's body had once housed a nogitsune. The young man had, at the very least, deserved a proper cremation.</p>
<p>But the last couple years had just gotten more insane. He'd managed to help the pack stop the Dread Doctors, but they'd barely had time to clean up from that when the Wild Hunt had set their sights on Beacon Hills and the Inuk-ite had escaped. Fortunately, armed with knowledge he wouldn't have had the first time around Halwyn had managed to handle both, but he definitely deserved a break.</p>
<p>But that meant hiring more staff, especially if he wanted to keep the treatment center open for human patients which—he had to face it—was where he earned enough money to keep the rest of Eichen House going.</p>
<p>He turned to his computer, cursed at it in at least three languages when he couldn't access the right webpage, and then called his very helpful werewolf assistant in to do it for him.</p>
<p>"Why did we even buy you a computer?" Camden asked with a wide grin as he joined Halwyn on his side of the desk. His mate quickly found the right webpage and together they wrote the ads for all the employment opportunities they were offering.</p>
<p>Yes, once Halwyn found enough staff to run the place without him again, he and Camden were going on a nice long vacation.</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"Stiles?" Peter called telepathically even as he knocked on the bedroom door. It felt a little weird for the room to be occupied again. For the past couple years it had pretty much been the abandoned space of a fifteen-year-old kid in a rush to get to college, forgotten dirty socks and all.</p><p>"You can come in," Stiles responded telepathically as well. After three years of silence it was a little worrisome that they'd fallen back into communicating this way so easily.</p><p>Peter pushed the door open to find Stiles surrounded by books. Most of them were from their own library. Only one had the decidedly rank smell of moldy sewage. One day he was going to get Stiles to design magical nose plugs to filter that particular smell out.</p><p>"Research?" he asked. Stiles glanced at the book in front of him and nodded, but it seemed more likely he'd been staring at the pages while brooding. "Derek told me about the phone call."</p><p>"Which phone call?"</p><p>"The one with your dad. You talked about Void and Noshiko."</p><p>"Fuck me," Stiles said with feeling. "I was in here, with the door closed. When the hell did he develop hearing good enough to hear through the sound proofing?"</p><p>"I don't think <em>when</em> is all that important right now."</p><p>"You're right." Stiles dragged both hands down his face. "Yeah, you're right. What did you tell him?"</p><p>"The truth."</p><p>"What the fuck? Why?" Stiles stood up from his desk and started pacing the room. "Why would you tell him the truth? We've got enough problems to deal with right now."</p><p>"We do," Peter agreed, "but we've gotten careless."</p><p>"I haven't exactly had time to practice," Stiles said in an annoyed tone.</p><p>"I meant me and Noah. We told Chris a few years back and Halwyn when we thawed him out. We've probably gotten a little too used to talking about the timelines, especially now that you remember, but I'm also not sure it's as simple as that."</p><p>Stiles stopped pacing and turned to him. "What does that mean?"</p><p>"It means I think part of the other timeline is bleeding through."</p><p>"What? How?" He started pacing again. "No, that can't be true."</p><p>"I think it is," Peter admitted. "I've noticed a few things over the years, mostly inconsequential stuff like Derek buying the exact same car he'd driven in the first timeline."</p><p>Stiles shook his head. "That just means he has the same taste in both timelines."</p><p>"Except that it was Laura's car. She was the show off who drove too fast and got so many speeding fines the state impounded her car until they were paid. "</p><p>"Coincidence," Stiles dismissed.</p><p>"Derek asked his parents for a sensible four-door sedan to drive his friends to school."</p><p>Stiles snorted. "That I cannot imagine, but it can be explained."</p><p>Peter raised an eyebrow.</p><p>"Without Laura's hellion example," Stiles said slowly, thinking it through as he argued his point, "Derek didn't need to be the sensible sibling. And he did drive the sensible sedan when we were all in elementary school, so it makes sense that he'd indulge himself with a fast car once he had the chance."</p><p>"On it's own I'd agree it's just a coincidence, but there have been things with the others too. In the old timeline Malia once told me she attacked you in the basement of Lorraine's lake house when she was learning control in human form."</p><p>Stiles nodded.</p><p>"Lydia and Lorraine can sense it. Neither of them want to go into the basement because of the anguish and fear they can sense."</p><p>"That could be something else," Stiles said. "I should probably get over there and check it."</p><p>"Possibly," Peter agreed. "But the timing works. You were seventeen when the thing with Malia happened?"</p><p>"Give or take a few months," Stiles admitted.</p><p>"Lydia and Lorraine were fine before the four of you moved to LA. The problem was there when they got back. The timing fits."</p><p>"Maybe," Stiles conceded.</p><p>"And when Gerard shot Derek with a wolfsbane loaded bullet Derek described the sensation as 'strangely familiar' and when I burned it out he said "I'd forgotten how much that hurts.'"</p><p>"He'd <em>forgotten?</em>"</p><p>"At the time I wrote it off as a moment of hysteria that I'd heard wrong, but over the years I've seen and heard things that have made me wonder."</p><p>"Any suggestions on how we might stop it?"</p><p>"Not a clue," Peter admitted, "but I have noticed it's only the people who were paranormal in both timelines. None of the humans—Ally included since she was never a werejaguar in the old timeline—have shown any signs of remembering things that didn't happen." He scratched his chin and added reluctantly, "And most of it does fit into explainable categories—Isaac took to being a werewolf so easily because he grew up in the pack; Aiden and Ethan mastered their hybrid form first time because it was instinct; Lydia understood the intricacies of ancient Latin at age nine because she's extremely intelligent and enjoys learning; Erica called you Batman."</p><p>"Yeah, okay," Stiles said, sighing tiredly. "You may have a point." He frowned. "Hang on. Erica is human in this timeline. How would she be remembering?"</p><p>"Hal once told me that he thinks when you use your spark to heal it leaves a supernatural glow on the recipient. It apparently looks similar to the one a potential magic user has. It marks them as paranormal, even when they're still technically human."</p><p>"Ally's a werejaguar, so she's fine, but we might need to track down Erica. I don't like the idea of accidentally marking humans as paranormal. If someone like Illiandra tries to steal her supposed power they're not going to get very far. Unfortunately they won't know that until after they kill Erica."</p><p>"Yeah," Peter agreed. "I'll get my investigator on it, but if my guess is right she'll probably find her way to us."</p><p>Stiles didn't have time to disagree before the sound of the doorbell rang through the house.</p><p>"You can't be serious?" he said, shaking his head disbelievingly.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Wow it is so weird to be back here," Erica said, studying the abandoned buildings as they drove through Beacon Hills. "Was that building ever actually a bank?"</p><p>"I think so," Boyd said, frowning. "Maybe when we were kids. I think I remember a big robbery or a break in or something."</p><p>Erica snorted. "That sounds about right. What were they thinking building a bank that prestigious in this disaster of a town?"</p><p>Boyd laughed softly.</p><p>"I wonder if there's anything left inside."</p><p>"You're thinking someone might have dropped a few thousand on their way out?"</p><p>Eric laughed happily. "Well it's possible," she said, still laughing. "Probably one in a million-billion but I for one cannot afford to ignore a potential windfall of that size."</p><p>"Me neither," Boyd agreed, glad for the excuse to delay their visit with his parents. He was almost certain his stepdad would love Erica and his mom would hate her, but they'd both be polite and welcoming and wait a few days before making their opinions known.</p><p>Nevertheless, the longer he could put off getting there the less time they'd be there before they needed to head back to LA. He slowed the car down, did a U turn and parked across the road from the bank. He climbed out and followed Erica across the street.</p><p>She didn't bother to hide her curiosity. She simply walked up to the windows, cupped her hands around her face to block out the light, and then studied whatever it was she saw.</p><p>"Oh wow, that is one huge waste of space." She laughed and stepped back to let him see.</p><p>The floor was a mess, dust and detritus all over the place, but the counters seemed to be solid granite and the chairs piled in a corner looked to be solid wood and leather. They'd probably been very expensive to buy.</p><p>Erica was right. It was an enormous waste of money and space.</p><p>"I think this might be the main foyer," Erica said. She pointed her finger, pressing it against the dirty glass. "And I think that's the vault over there through that door."</p><p>"Sounds like you've been inside. Any chance you've got a rich uncle you never told me about?"</p><p>Erica laughed. "That would make life so much easier."</p><p>She cupped her hands around her face again, staring intently at something on the far left.</p><p>"Oh, and that door over there at the back. That's the janitor's closet. That's where I died."</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>It took a moment for Stiles to recognize the guy at the front door.</p><p>"Good morning," the man said even though Stiles was pretty sure they'd already reached the afternoon part of the day. "Where do you want these?"</p><p>"Oh, um…" Yeah, he knew this guy. "Usual place. I'll give you a hand."</p><p>"Thanks," the grocery delivery driver said as he passed over a large box and turned back to the truck for more.</p><p>Stiles chuckled at his own silly worry that it had been Erica at the door.</p><p>His life was weird, but surely it couldn't be that weird.</p><p>There had to be a limit to these things.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"I have no idea why I said that," Erica said, flushing hot and cold as she imagined what Boyd must think of such a strange claim. "That was… Sorry, that was just weird. Obviously I didn't die there since I'm, you know, standing right here."</p><p>"So I'm not dating a zombie?" Boyd asked. It took a moment for her to realize he was teasing her.</p><p>"Not last time I checked."</p><p>"Better let me check," Boyd said, leaning in to press a kiss to her lips and then another to the pulse point on her throat. "Hmm… if you are a zombie, you taste pretty good."</p><p>"Bonus," she said, glad to forget everything that had just happened. "I suppose we should get moving. Your parents are expecting us soon and I would hate to make a bad impression by arriving late."</p><p>"Yeah," Boyd said, seeming reluctant to stop hugging her. "We could always call and say the car broke down."</p><p>She laughed. "Let's not tempt fate."</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"What the hell sort of trouble have you gotten yourself into now, Stilinski?"</p><p>"Jax!" Stiles said, reaching for the guy and laughing hard when he basically hugged the hell out of him. "Whoa, kanima strength, dude."</p><p>"Cry baby," Jackson said, loosening his hold just a little and then a lot more.</p><p>"Yeah, breathing is so overrated." Stiles hugged his stepbrother again. "Where have you been? I've been home three whole days."</p><p>"As if my life revolves around yours," Jackson said dismissively.</p><p>"It used to," Stiles teased even though it wasn't really true.</p><p>"Why is there never an open locker when I need one?"</p><p>"Ah," Stiles said on a happy exhale. "Elementary school, good times."</p><p>"They were," Jackson agreed. "Although you skipping high school made my life so much simpler."</p><p>"Yeah, yeah," Stiles said, smirking. "You missed me."</p><p>"Not a chance," Jackson said with a roll of his eyes. Damn it was good to see him.</p><p>"So, what have you been up to?"</p><p>"Just dealing with some legal bullshit. Apparently before my adoption my 'deceased' mother left me a whole lot of money."</p><p>"Talia?" Stiles asked, trying to remember which version of events happened in which timeline.</p><p>"Yeah, that's what Peter thinks. She probably couldn't ignore the compulsion to follow Deaton's 'suggestions' but maybe she had enough autonomy to feel guilty about it."</p><p>"So you inherited some money?" Stiles asked.</p><p>"Enough to get me through college a dozen times," Jackson said with a shrug. It wasn't like any of them had money problems. Peter was paying for everyone's college education out of the pack's finances. Stiles wasn't sure exactly how much money there was, but he did know Peter spent a lot of his time dealing with financial, taxation, and other issues that apparently went hand-in-hand with having that much money. "Bought myself a car with what was left."</p><p>Jackson's phrasing caught Stiles by surprise until he played the conversation back in his mind. Knowing his stepbrother he'd probably spent the past couple days setting up a dozen scholarships. Of course Jackson would never want to discuss that. He preferred it when people thought he was an asshole.</p><p>"Hmm, new car? Let me guess," Stiles said, grinning. "A silver Porsche 911 Carrera S."</p><p>"Hell, no," Jackson said, scrunching up his face in disgust. "What sort of douche do you think I am?"</p><p>"Is that a trick question?" Stiles teased.</p><p>Jackson laughed and Stiles marveled at how different the young man was in this timeline.</p><p>"I didn't buy a Porsche, Stilinski," Jackson said rolling his eyes before curling his lips into a wide smile. "How the hell would I fit both my mates into a two-seater car?"</p><p>"Both?" Stiles asked, grinning with him now. "Danny?</p><p>'Yeah, we finally got around to talking about the elephant in the room."</p><p>"So all three of you? Together?"</p><p>"Yeah," Jackson said, seeming happier than Stiles could remember him being in either timeline.</p><p>"I'm really happy for you, Jax."</p><p>"Me too," he said grinning and nodding slowly. "Do you want to talk about you and Derek? Or, you know, what happened with Illiandra?"</p><p>"Maybe later," Stiles said. He kind of did want to talk with the stepbrother he shared an unusual bond with but Stiles was still trying to separate the two timelines in his mind. He didn't want to risk telling Jackson something he didn't need to know.</p><p>Yeah, his life just got a whole lot more complicated.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"You feeling okay, Amelia?"</p><p>Amelia gave him a strange look—Jordan hadn't really found a way to connect with the girl yet—but getting an answer somehow felt really important. Since joining the sheriff's pack Jordan had learned to trust his gut instincts.</p><p>And right now his gut was telling him something was wrong.</p><p>"I'm fine," Amelia said. It was the sort of answer a hormonal teenage shifter would give a person they didn't know but it wasn't honest. The kid's aura was weird, shining dull and patchy in places. But rather than upset the young werewolf and maybe set off a temper tantrum, Jordan backed off and decided to mention his concern to her alpha or one of her fathers.</p><p>Or maybe Halwyn could help. He was far better at reading the glow Jordan had barely noticed before learning he was a hellhound.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Sorry, Sheriff. I don't mean to interrupt your day off."</p><p>"It's okay, Tara," Noah said, quickly checking the time on his phone before putting it back to his ear. "What's up?"</p><p>"We just got a rather hysterical call from Vernon Boyd's mother. She says she just knows something terrible happened to him. He's only a couple of hours late, but he's not answering his phone."</p><p>"Where's he traveling from?"</p><p>"He just moved to LA—he starts college next semester. He's traveling with his girlfriend but his mom doesn't have her phone number."</p><p>"It's too early to do anything official," Noah said, wondering if Tara called him because she remembered the attempted abduction of Alicia Boyd so many years ago. "But it won't hurt to send a patrol car out to check the highway for breakdowns."</p><p>"Thanks, Sheriff."</p><p>"Do we have a name for the girlfriend?"</p><p>"Yeah, that's kind of why I called. Remember that case a few years ago where the kid was being poisoned with mistletoe?"</p><p>"Erica Reyes."</p><p>"Yeah, she's the girlfriend."</p><p>Noah swore under his breath. "Okay, send a patrol car, and alert everyone on duty of their details."</p><p>"Thanks, Sheriff," Tara said.</p><p>She'd barely hung up before Noah rushed through the house to find Derek. Maybe he was overreacting, but it seemed too much of a coincidence for two of the teenagers Derek had bitten in the old timeline to go missing on their way to Beacon Hills while visiting together.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Noah found Derek in his office. Alec was curled up on the sofa reading a book. The kid startled slightly, perhaps when he smelled a human so close, but settled again when he saw Derek's smile. Noah had no doubt Alec intended to follow the conversation even though he seemed engrossed in his book.</p><p>"We need to organize a search party."</p><p>"What for?" Derek asked, already glancing at Alec to gauge the kid's reaction.</p><p>"A couple has gone missing. One of them is Vernon Boyd."</p><p>"From the wendigo incident a decade ago?"</p><p>"Yeah," Noah said, glad the alpha remembered.</p><p>"Any other reason?" Derek asked, even as he stood up and called for Amelia. Noah was a little startled when Amelia pretty much ran into the office. Yes, Derek was her alpha, but even he hadn't had the much influence over her hormonal moods. "Can you stay with Alec, please? Your dad and I have a situation we need to deal with."</p><p>"No worries," Amelia said easily, the adorable child she'd been almost shining through the angsty façade of teenage werewolf.</p><p>"We'll be in the meeting room," Derek said, grabbing his cellphone, "so you'll need to call me on my cell if you need me in the next fifteen minutes."</p><p>Amelia rolled her eyes—yes, there was Noah's teenage darling—held up her own cellphone in acknowledgment, and then sat down on the opposite end of the sofa Alec occupied.</p><p>Derek smiled and moved into the hallway leading Noah toward the meeting room.</p><p>"Boyd is human in this timeline?" Derek asked the moment the door was closed.</p><p>"Ah," Noah said, almost startled to realize Derek was not one of the people he discussed these things with. "Other timeline?"</p><p>Derek raised an eyebrow and waited.</p><p>"Who told you?"</p><p>"Uncle Peter, mostly," he said. "I overheard you and Stiles on the phone yesterday. Chris has said a few things over the years that suddenly make way more sense. I think Halwyn is about the only one able to keep a secret."</p><p>"We would have told you, if it had been relevant."</p><p>"And it wasn't relevant the night Illiandra attacked Stiles?"</p><p>"Yeah, that probably would have been better timing," Noah admitted. "None of us meant to hurt you."</p><p>"I know," Derek said, accepting Noah's word easily. "I just wish I'd been able to protect Stiles from the fallout. If I'd known he thought I was someone else…"</p><p>Noah rubbed the back of his neck. "You know it's not that simple, right? You're still both the same people. You just have different experiences. That doesn't change your core personalities."</p><p>"Stiles doesn't seem to think so. I think his exact words were 'Dad, I fucked up.' Yeah, I overheard <em>that</em> phone call too."</p><p>"Shit," Noah said, sighing softly. "I guess it'd be pretty hypocritical to berate you for keeping your increased hearing ability a secret."</p><p>"U-huh."</p><p>"Sorry," Noah said. "When Stiles sent us back, it's was just me and Peter, and we were really glad that Stiles didn't come back with us."</p><p>"When was that?"</p><p>"The day of the fire."</p><p>"I guess that makes sense. Peter told me how it happened in the old timeline." Derek shook his head as if to clear it. "Okay, time to look forward, or are you still looking back?"</p><p>"We've got a few years—roughly seven and a half more—but the butterfly effect is kicking our asses."</p><p>Derek nodded. "Changing one thing had a ripple effect?"</p><p>"Pretty much. Stopping Laura revealed Deucalion. Stopping Deucalion meant Ennis never killed his pack and instead tried to take our territory." Derek smirked at the memory. Yeah, his seventeenth birthday had been a good one. "Victoria got scratched, not Kate, and we didn't even know about the knife that changed Allison into La Loba."</p><p>"Kate was La Loba?" Derek looked like he was going to be sick. Noah could relate.</p><p>"Yeah," Noah said, dropping his voice to almost a whisper. "She used the berserkers as her own private army. I blew one up—I don't even know which one—with a claymore to protect Lydia and Mason."</p><p>"Mason?"</p><p>"Long story," Noah said, "which I will tell you, okay. Anything you want answered. Me, Peter, or Stiles. We'll explain it all. But right now we need to concentrate on Boyd and Erica."</p><p>"Erica? The girl Stiles healed when she was being poisoned by her mom?"</p><p>"Yeah, in the original timeline no one realized that was why Erica started having seizures. As best we can figure—and without Melissa to help with the medical things we're kind of flying blind—the damage from the first few seizures caused more and she was diagnosed as epileptic a few years later. You offered her the bite to cure her epilepsy. She jumped at the chance and led you to Boyd. You'd already bitten Isaac when you found him injured after a beating from his dad."</p><p>"Camden?"</p><p>Noah shook his head, still a little embarrassed that Lahey had been able to get away with telling everyone his son joined the armed forces and died overseas when the truth had been far more sinister.</p><p>"Camden was long dead when you found Isaac."</p><p>"Okay," Derek said, clearly attempting to stay focused on their most pressing problem. "Is there a reason to think two humans in this timeline are in any particular danger?"</p><p>"Nothing specific," Noah admitted. "But we've had too many cases of 'good timing' to discount the idea that things are happening for a reason. If Boyd and Erica are in danger, my gut tells me it's most likely from a paranormal source."</p><p>"The threefold sacrifices?"</p><p>"Still no leads," Noah admitted. "Our latest theory is that it may be Theo Raeken. He has the strength, the means, and the motive."</p><p>"Was he in the old timeline?"</p><p>"He was. Peter and I were unaware that he was in Stiles's class at school until after he had the heart transplant. By the time we managed to track him down his parents had given up custody to a 'kind benefactor willing to pay his medical bills.'"</p><p>"Parents of the year," Derek mumbled. Noah could understand Derek's disdain but he also understood the realities of a limited budget. If the insurance Theo's parents had at the time wasn't adequate, it may have been their only choice to save at least one of their kids. And with their daughter's heart at risk of becoming useless during the delay, the decision had probably been made within moments of the receiving the offer. Noah knew exactly how far a parent would go to save their child.</p><p>"Hal managed to—"</p><p>The door opened and Peter and Stiles joined them in the room.</p><p>"Hal can't leave Eichen, but Camden is on his way home," Peter said as he entered.</p><p>"So are Aiden, Ethan, and Jackson," Stiles added. "Still waiting on replies from Chris and Ally."</p><p>Derek checked his own phone. "Lydia, Natalie, and Lorraine are on their way home."</p><p>Stiles checked his messages again. "And no response from Malia. Color me surprised."</p><p>Noah smiled at the reminder of how much Malia hated cellphones. Every other teenager he knew—and adult if he was being honest—was obsessed with their cellphone, but Malia literally growled at hers whenever it rang. It wasn't unusual for her to let the battery run out and ignore it for several weeks. She also spent an unhealthy amount of time in her coyote form.</p><p>"Wanna give us the gist while we're waiting?"</p><p>"Vernon Boyd and Erica Reyes went missing a couple of hours ago."</p><p>"They were together?" Peter asked. "I didn't think they ever met."</p><p>Noah checked his phone and found the details of the unofficial "missing persons" file Tara had sent all of the deputies on duty. "According to Boyd's mother they've been dating for a few days and decided to visit on a whim."</p><p>"So only Boyd's family knew they were coming?"</p><p>"As far as we know," Noah said with a nod. "I can't officially request their phone records until they're missing for twenty-four hours or we have reason to believe there's been foul play."</p><p>"I might be able to track Erica," Stiles said, apparently activating his spark. Derek narrowed his eyes but Noah wasn't sure if it was in annoyance or to protect his vision. Noah couldn't see it—being human had a few advantages—but according to what he'd been told by the others the way Stiles glowed was almost enough to damage even supernatural retinas. And Stiles was only getting stronger.</p><p>"How?" Derek asked Peter.</p><p>"Halwyn told me that when Stiles healed Erica he left a mark. He said she glowed the way a magic user does. We suspect only magic users and hellhounds can see it, but it created a connection between them—"</p><p>"So I should be able to find her," Stiles finished for him. But his words weren't as sure as they usually were. Since regaining his memories of the other timeline he'd gotten both stronger and weaker at the same time. Noah suspected that it had to do with the reminder that he wasn't infallible. In the new timeline Stiles had believed in his abilities from a young age, easily and without doubt. In the old timeline he'd spent years trying to do more than a few mountain ash tricks. That disconnect was very likely the reason for many of the things going wrong for him right now.</p><p>Including the conflict with his mate.</p><p>Stiles spent a few moments with his eyes closed, frowning hard, but eventually he smiled and walked over to the map on the wall. He touched the location for the pack house with his forefinger and Noah watched as a tiny glowing spark moved directly to a remote location on the map.</p><p>"Underground?" Derek asked.</p><p>"I think it's the tunnels the Inuk-ite used."</p><p>"We searched all through them," Peter said, shaking his head in concern.</p><p>"We also acknowledged that the Dread Doctors had a way of skewing our senses."</p><p>"Okay, so how do we find them now?" Derek asked.</p><p>Stiles touched his finger to the map, drawing the tiny spark away, and letting it float in the air. "We follow the bouncing ball?"</p><p>"Thanks for making this weird," Derek said, rolling his eyes. "Fine. Send it to Erica. Peter and I will follow."</p><p>"And we'll stay in touch," Peter said to Stiles, tapping the side of his head to indicate via their telepathy. "When the others get here—"</p><p>"We'll fill them in," Noah said, the familiar combination of adrenaline and dread flooding his veins. "And we'll be right behind you."</p><p>Derek nodded, gave Noah a small smile—perhaps glad to be the one Noah turned to again—and left the room. Peter pressed a kiss to Noah's lips on his way past, and then the werewolves used preternatural speed to follow the tiny glowing spark out of the house and into the preserve.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"Erica?"</p><p>Erica tried to open her eyes, the lids strangely heavy as she struggled to full wakefulness.</p><p>"Erica?"</p><p>"Boyd?" she asked, unable to discern the direction his voice was coming from.</p><p>"Yeah, open your eyes, sweetheart."</p><p>"Can't," she said, lifting her arm to awkwardly run the back of her hand over her nose. It came away wet. Irritated by the weakness that permeated every part of her body, Erica finally managed to force her damn eyelids open just a crack.</p><p>The warm wet liquid on her hand wasn't blood, and it wasn't snot, and it sure as fuck wasn't tears, but hell if she knew what it was. Silver? What the hell could be on her face?</p><p>"Erica," Boyd called again, his voice finally registering as an urgent whisper.</p><p>"Yeah," she said, her tongue feeling too large for her mouth.</p><p>"You need to run."</p><p>"What?" she asked, swinging her head from side to side and managing not to see much of anything thanks to the curtain of her hair blocking her line of sight. She growled in irritation and startled at the unexpectedly deep sound.</p><p>"Erica, run," Boyd repeated. "Run and don't look back."</p><p>"No," she said, pushing her legs under herself in an attempt to climb onto her feet. She didn't get far, crashing back to the cold concrete, before stubbornly trying again. "Not without you."</p><p>"He'll be back soon."</p><p>"Don't care," she said, crawling toward Boyd's voice. "Not leaving without you."</p><p>"Then I guess you're not leaving," a voice said from behind her. She turned her head sharply, her elbow collapsing violently enough to smash her face into whatever the fuck was in front of her. She growled again, this time relishing the low, deep sound of anger.</p><p>"Huh," the owner of the voice said, "maybe you're not a complete fail. Be a good beta and stay where you are."</p><p>"Like fuck," Erica said, fully intending to follow through, but the kick to her head was just fucking rude. And yeah, really fucking hard.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>The tiny little spark hurtled toward its destination, skirting trees and other obstacles, and then dancing in front of the door to the tunnels until Derek opened it. They followed it into the tunnels, moving carefully now that they were so close to where Erica was apparently being held.</p><p>But when the spark traveled through a solid wall they both stopped.</p><p>"What the hell?" Derek whispered. "It went around everything else."</p><p>"Stiles thinks the wall is an illusion."</p><p>"Not an illusion," Derek said, touching the wall with his fingertips. "Solid concrete."</p><p>"He's still insisting it's an illusion. Wants us to walk straight through it."</p><p>Derek shook his head and gave his uncle a furious look. He leaned against the wall to make his point very clear.</p><p>Peter shrugged, closed his eyes, and walked…straight through the fucking wall. What the fuck?</p><p>Derek fell through a moment later.</p><p>He'd be demanding an explanation for that what-the-fuckery the moment it was safe to do so.</p><p>The spark went through two more solid-looking walls and again—despite the wall seeming to be there both visually and physically—they were able to walk straight through. The last one opened onto a large room. At the far end there was the type of filthy medical equipment one might expect in a half-decent horror movie, and strapped to a metal table was an older version of the Vernon Boyd Derek remembered from the park so long ago.</p><p>Standing over him, apparently watching the contents of an IV bag slowly drip into Boyd's vein was Theo Raeken.</p><p>But instead of turning to fight them, he shook his head and gave them a devastated look.</p><p>"It's not working."</p><p>"What's not working?" Peter asked, moving around the table toward a young blonde woman that Derek thought had to be Erica.</p><p>"The change." Theo dragged a book closer and read over the handwritten notes again. "It should be working. She's…" He indicated Erica. "She started to change and then… " He shook his head and indicated Boyd. "And he started and then nothing."</p><p>"He's dying," Derek said, listening intently to the way Boyd's heart was beginning to slow. "You need to stop what you're doing."</p><p>"I can't," Theo said. "I need a pack. I need stability."</p><p>"You can't make a pack like this," Peter said, lifting Erica into his arms. Her head flopped against his shoulder and for a moment Derek had an awful sense of déjà vu.</p><p>"No, I can," Theo said, indicating the books beside him. "It's all here."</p><p>"They're not chimeras."</p><p>"I know," Theo growled angrily, his eyes glowing a sickly yellow. "I found a work around."</p><p>Derek sincerely doubted that. If the Dread Doctors hadn't found it in all their years of research and experimentation, a desperate teenager was unlikely to find the answer so easily.</p><p>"Derek can save them," Peter said.</p><p>"Stiles?"</p><p>Peter shook his head. "Too far away."</p><p>Boyd stiffened against the table, his hands moving awkwardly against his bonds. Derek thought he might be having a heart attack.</p><p>"Theo, let me help them," Derek said more urgently.</p><p>"Okay," he agreed, glaring at Derek. "But they're my betas, not yours."</p><p>"You're the boss," Derek said, willing to agree to anything Theo said if it meant saving Boyd and Erica. Besides, just saying the words, didn't make it true.</p><p>"Boyd," he said, immediately pulling the IV line from his arm. "Boyd." But the young man was unconscious and unresponsive. Derek had never bitten anyone against their will but he hated even more the idea of just letting the young man die.</p><p>"Do it," Peter said, giving him a look that said he was trying to convey more than what he was saying out loud. "Remember that bitch Illiandra?"</p><p>Okay. Yeah, okay. He sure as fuck hoped he was understanding Stiles's message correctly. If Boyd and Erica didn't want to be werewolves, Stiles could reverse it the same way he'd drained Illiandra of her magic.</p><p>He didn't wait a moment longer.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Is he doing it?" Stiles asked impatiently, even his telepathic voice sounding breathless with worry.</p><p>"He is," Peter responded, lifting Erica higher against his chest as Derek finished biting Boyd and moved to do the same to Erica.</p><p>"ETA?"</p><p>"We're only about a minute out," Stiles said, "Walking through walls is totally weird."</p><p>"At least you know they're not actual walls."</p><p>"True," Stiles said, continuing the habit of talking nervously the way he still did in this timeline. "Is it working? Are they going to be all right? What is Theo doing now?"</p><p>Peter wanted to roll his eyes, but he also wanted to avoid upsetting Theo so he stayed still and monitored the heartbeats of two very ill humans as the alpha bite tried to offset the damage and turn them into werewolves.</p><p>"Theo is about to become very unconscious," Peter reported as Derek grabbed the distracted young man from behind, pushing Theo's head forward against the arm Derek had around his neck until Theo passed out. And then he held him a little longer just to be sure.</p><p>By the time Theo's panicked heartbeat slowed back to a more normal rhythm Stiles, Noah, Chris, Ally and Camden had arrived.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Theo woke handcuffed to a metal table.</p><p>He wanted to laugh at how easy it would be to break out of it until he realized he couldn't actually break the handcuff holding him to the table.</p><p>"What the fuck?" he yelled into the empty room, frustrated as hell. He wasn't even sure where he was.</p><p>A moment later a sheriff's deputy stepped into the room. He sat on the other side of the table and opened a folder. He spent a few minutes reading the contents and ignoring Theo like he wasn't even there. That was fucking rude and something this guy was going to regret.</p><p>"I'm glad you're finally awake," the deputy eventually said, closing the folder in front of him. "We've called for a public defender, so you're not obligated to say anything until she arrives."</p><p>Theo growled and was distracted by how un-growly it came out.</p><p>"You're being charged with two counts of abduction. We'll probably add more as the investigation progresses, but that's what you're facing right now."</p><p>"You can't hold me here," Theo said, pulling against the handcuff again. "What did you do to me? What the fuck are these handcuffs made of?"</p><p>"They're just standard issue," the deputy said, giving him a weird look. "You're going to dislocate something if you keep pulling on them like that."</p><p>"I'll heal," Theo sneered. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."</p><p>The deputy nodded. "Your legal counsel will be here soon. As I stated earlier you are not required to say anything. Anything you do say, however, will be recorded by that camera over my left shoulder and then used against you in court. Is that clear? Are you aware of your right to silence?"</p><p>"Whatever," Theo said, not really giving a shit.</p><p>"Okay," the deputy said, seeming surprised. "You're being charged with two counts of abduction and are our main suspect in three homicides."</p><p>"Homicides? The Dread Doctors? I didn't kill them." He'd wanted to, especially when they'd screwed him on the alpha part of their deal, but someone had taken them out long before he'd figured out a way.</p><p>"The…Dread Doctors?" the deputy asked, writing it down. "Who are the Dread Doctors?"</p><p>"The three dead guys?"</p><p>"You killed them?"</p><p>"No," Theo said with a smirk. "Someone else killed them."</p><p>"So you deny tying Caroline Freido to a—"</p><p>"Who's Caroline Freido? The Dread Doctors were all males."</p><p>"So you admit to killing Adam Parkman and Harvey Guedmin?"</p><p>"Who and who?" Theo asked, not even trying to be a smart-ass. He smirked to cover his confusion.</p><p>The deputy seemed to change tactics. "Can you tell me why you positioned them all to face water?"</p><p>"I didn't position them anywhere. I don't even know who you're talking about."</p><p>"I'm talking about the three people you killed."</p><p>"I didn't kill anyone," Theo said, wondering what the fuck was going on. "You're trying to pin three murders on me?"</p><p>The deputy shrugged. "If the boot fits."</p><p>"Whoa, no. Nope, I didn't kill anyone. I abducted that couple. I hid in the back of their car until they got back in, drugged them, and then tried to turn them into werewolves, but I did not kill anyone."</p><p>"Werewolves?" the deputy asked, raising an eyebrow and looking suitably startled.</p><p>"That's right. Werewolves, so I don't give a shit about human laws."</p><p>"Human laws?"</p><p>"Yeah," Theo confirmed, willing his eyes to glow yellow. "I'm a werewolf-werecoyote hybrid. You can't keep me in this cage."</p><p>"You're a werewolf?" the deputy asked, looking worried.</p><p>Theo rolled his eyes. "I'm a werewolf-werecoyote hybrid. I'm faster, stronger and superior in every way to a stupid werewolf. Even the alphas."</p><p>"Kid," the deputy said, glancing over his shoulder at the camera. "You're being recorded." The light was blinking so Theo was pretty sure the deputy was telling the truth. He didn't give a shit. He was a werewolf-werecoyote hybrid, and he could make his own fucking rules.</p><p>"I don't give a fuck who knows," Theo said, wondering why the fuck his arm was starting to hurt. He pulled harder, growling that stupid sissy growl again. When the fuck had that happened? He'd always been proud of the growl he made with his human mouth. And hey, where the fuck were his teeth? The canine ones. And ow, why was his wrist swelling and not healing? That actually fucking hurt. "I'm a werewolf-werecoyote hybrid and I am going to rip your stupid face off the moment I get out of here."</p><p>"Did you take any drugs earlier today?" the deputy asked.</p><p>Theo scrunched his face in irritation. "Drugs don't work on me! I'm a werewolf—"</p><p>"Werecoyote hybrid. Yeah, I haven't forgotten."</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Noah watched the camera feed from the next room, frowning for his audience as Theo bragged about being a supernatural hybrid.</p><p>The deputy's body language suggested he was losing patience. After a few more insults and deadly threats from Theo, Simon grabbed his folder, checked the camera was still working, and came out the door. It clanged loudly behind him.</p><p>"Geez," he said, checking to make sure the camera feed Noah could see was still pointed at Theo. "That kid is completely nuts."</p><p>"I think the politically correct term is 'mentally disturbed' but we'll let his legal counsel figure that out. Good job on the confession."</p><p>"Thanks," Simon said, obviously pleased. "Doesn't seem like he was involved in the ritualistic murders though."</p><p>"Yeah, I got that impression too," Noah said. "It was a long shot." From an evidence-based perspective even less. "But I admit to hoping we were only dealing with one deranged person instead of two."</p><p>"Yeah that would have made our lives easier." Simon scratched a finger over his eyebrow, clearly agitated. "If he keeps pulling on the cuff like that he's going to dislocate his wrist. Maybe we should call Eichen?"</p><p>Noah nodded slowly as if the idea hadn't yet occurred to him. "It might be safer for everyone."</p><p>"I'm sure his legal counsel won't mind us handing him a ready-made defense."</p><p>"Probably not," Noah agreed. "Though when a kid is that disturbed…"</p><p>"Yeah," Simon said, watching the feed as though mesmerized. "A kid that delusional wouldn't survive prison time."</p><p>"Probably not," Noah agreed. "I'll go make some calls."</p><p>"Thanks, Sheriff," Simon said, sounding extremely grateful.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"Hey, Catwoman," Stiles said as Erica slowly opened her eyes. "We've got to stop meeting like this."</p><p>"Stiles?" she asked, sitting up fast and glancing around the room until her gaze fell on Boyd. "What happened?"</p><p>"You were abducted and attacked. By the time we found you it was too late for conventional medicine."</p><p>"Meaning?" she asked, moving toward Boyd.</p><p>"Meaning you and Boyd are currently transitioning into werewolves."</p><p>"U-huh," she said, disbelievingly.</p><p>"Look at me," Derek demanded in a very undemanding tone. Erica did as she was told without stopping to question why. Derek flashed his red alpha eyes at her and hers responded automatically.</p><p>"Um…" Erica said, biting her lips together before apparently noticing how much sharper her teeth were. "Ow?"</p><p>"As I was saying," Stiles said, trying to get back on track. "You were abducted and attacked and the only way to save both of you was to turn you into werewolves. You're in a kind of transition phase."</p><p>"So I'm going to howl at the moon three days a month?" Erica asked, her tone dripping with sarcasm.</p><p>"Something like that," Stiles agreed, "but well there is a way to reverse it. We don't usually turn a human into a werewolf without a whole lot of discussion first." Even Camden had been given a choice and he'd been beat to hell by his dad before Derek was able to offer. "Both of you were in a bad way when we found you and you didn't get a chance to say no to the change. This is us offering you and Boyd a chance to go back."</p><p>"To go back to being human?"</p><p>"Yep, well mostly," Stiles admitted. "The healing part leaves a sort of marker. It's mild and only noticeable to magic users and hellhounds."</p><p>"Hellhounds?"</p><p>"Ah, yeah, all things we don't need to talk about if you decide to go back to being human."</p><p>"And if we decide we want to be werewolves?"</p><p>"We'll offer you a place in our pack," Derek said with a warm smile.</p><p>"Why?"</p><p>"Because it takes time to learn control," Stiles said.</p><p>"And because werewolves need a pack, a place to belong."</p><p>"Will I have to give up college?" Boyd asked, apparently more awake than Stiles realized.</p><p>"No," Derek said immediately. "Under other circumstances I'd suggest deferring for a year, but your mother told us you got a scholarship at the same college a couple of our pack members will be attending this coming semester." He grinned when he saw Boyd's relief. "They'll help keep you stable. Your life can continue with minimal disruption."</p><p>Erica rolled her eyes. "Good to know my glamorous future of underpaid waitress won't be interrupted."</p><p>Derek laughed softly. "We can figure something out," he said, stopping short of offering Erica the world just yet. Derek may not remember the other timeline but he was reacting to Boyd and Erica in much the same ways he'd done the last time. He'd admitted that his connection to them felt both weird and intriguing, but it wasn't unwelcome.</p><p>The door to the medical room cracked open. "Is it okay to come in?"</p><p>Derek waited for his newest betas to nod their consent and then called for their pack mates to come into the room.</p><p>"Erica, Boyd," Stiles said, taking over the introductions, "this is Allison and—"</p><p>"Isaac!" Erica said, smiling widely.</p><p>Isaac grinned, moved closer to the bed and hugged both his packmates from the old timeline as if nothing had ever changed.</p><p>Yeah, if there was ever any doubt that Erica and Boyd belonged in the Stilinski-Hale pack it was washed away by that.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Halwyn felt like he hadn't been home for weeks. It wasn't quite true. He and Camden came home most nights to sleep but their contact with the pack had been limited. They'd been trying to keep up with an overwhelming workload and somehow fit in interviews for new staff. If there wasn't a light at the end of the tunnel Halwyn was pretty sure he'd have an emotional breakdown soon.</p><p>He had no idea what something like that would do to a hellhound and he really didn't want to find out. Walking through town while on fire was not a way to keep the secret of the supernatural.</p><p>But his reason for rushing home in the middle of the day was just one more worry on top of everything else. Fortunately Derek was in his office with Peter and Noah. That would save him a whole lot of time.</p><p>"Hey, sorry to barge in," he said, doing just that, "but I have a problem at… Eichen."</p><p>Except that the problem wasn't confined to Eichen like he'd assumed.</p><p>"Hal?" Noah prompted, obviously realizing something was very wrong.</p><p>"Remember that draining spell on Julia Baccari? I've noticed a couple more around town. All weak enough to barely register, but a few hours ago I realized it's spreading kind of like a virus. Julia dropped by this morning and the two people she spoke to—both magic users—now show the same symptoms."</p><p>"But when you walked in you noticed Derek and Peter have the same thing?" Noah asked.</p><p>"Yeah, it's slightly different but pretty much the same symptoms."</p><p>"How did you know?" Derek asked Noah. "Did this happen in the other timeline?"</p><p>"Not in the other timeline," Noah said, shrugging slightly. "I noticed you've both been rubbing a space above your left eye today. If you were human I would have assumed it was a headache. Hal's reaction when he saw you confirmed what I'd begun to suspect."</p><p>"You're both affected," Halwyn confirmed. "Or maybe <em>infected</em> is a better word. I'll need to check the rest of the pack."</p><p>"We've got three members you haven't met yet," Derek said with a happy grin.</p><p>"Alec," Halwyn said with a nod. "Can I assume the other two are the humans you were looking for earlier?"</p><p>"Erica and Boyd," Derek said, grinning wider. "They were my betas in the old timeline."</p><p>Halwyn couldn't help but return the smile. He raised an eyebrow in Peter's direction. "I'm going to go ahead and assume that someone blabbed to Derek."</p><p>"Blabbed?" Peter asked, taking mock-offense. "We don't blab. We inform."</p><p>"Whatever you say, blabbermouth."</p><p>Peter inhaled, pretending to be insulted, but he ruined it by smiling.</p><p>"On a different serious note," Noah said, sounding happy despite his words. "We have reason to believe that some of the pack are remembering parts of their lives in the old timeline."</p><p>"I suppose that would make sense," Halwyn said, thinking the idea through. "Supernatural species are more attuned to their surroundings than humans. I've never dealt with time travel before but I suspect that any paranormal reliving the same life would get a déjà vu sort of feeling, whereas those whose lives have changed might get a flash of something that didn't happen in this one." He turned to Peter. "Wasn't that happening to Stiles for years before his memories returned? Are you worried it might happen to the others?"</p><p>Derek seemed very interested in the idea, but deflated when Peter shook his head.</p><p>"Stiles memories were prompted by a…um…" He glanced at Noah.</p><p>"By Claudia," Noah said, obviously surprising his husband. He grinned at Peter's expression. "You know I'm an investigator, right? You haven't forgotten that part?"</p><p>"I just…" Peter shrugged.</p><p>"It makes sense," Noah said, reaching for Peter's hand. "Stiles had to get his talents from somewhere. He sure as hell didn't get the magic from me. And everything that's happened—you and me coming back instead of Stiles by himself as the spell should have worked, Stiles being protected from his memories until he needed them to survive a deadly situation, the way we managed to be at the right place at the right time for Camden, Allison, Lorraine, Vernon and Alicia Boyd, and Erica Reyes at pivotal points in their lives. Even the way Stiles and Jackson bonded when he first turned into a kanima. It has all felt guided and exactly the type of thing Claudia would do to protect her family." Noah pressed a kiss to his husband's knuckles. "That includes you, Peter. I have no doubt."</p><p>Peter seemed stunned for a moment but he hid the painfully honest reaction behind sarcasm the moment he recovered. "Talk about raising the bar for title of best spouse."</p><p>Noah laughed. "But the bleed through of the old timeline is concerning," he said, turning the conversation back to what could be their biggest concern. "Everyone who was paranormal in both timelines has had moments of déjà vu." Halwyn had an awful belief that he knew exactly what the sheriff was thinking. "But the pack is not the only ones who were paranormal in both timelines."</p><p>"Deaton," Halwyn said.</p><p>"Fucking Deaton," Peter said with feeling.</p><p>"As well as Marin Morrell—or whatever name she's using now—Noshiko and Kira—although that may explain why Noshiko's ignoring Peter's calls."</p><p>"The Desert Wolf," Peter added with a grimace.</p><p>"Yeah, you don't need to worry about her," Noah said, seeming maybe a little bit embarrassed. He shrugged. "Ah… Happy Anniversary."</p><p>"Husband," Peter said with a delighted expression on his face, "what did you do?"</p><p>Noah cleared his throat nervously. "I <em>may</em> have tipped off an FBI agent to her whereabouts and I <em>might</em> have explained how to incapacitate a werecoyote enough to arrest her."</p><p>"Do I need to find space in Eichen?" Halwyn asked, more than a little impressed with the sheriff's way of dealing with deadly problems.</p><p>"Unfortunately no," Noah said, seeming maybe just a little bit regretful. "When you give a fed an inch, they usually take a mile."</p><p>"Braeden," Derek said suddenly. "I remember her. She was…"</p><p>"Part of a life that never happened," Peter said easily. "But someone we can trust to keep our secret." Noah nodded in agreement.</p><p>"So when you say 'take a mile' you mean she's dead?" Halwyn asked.</p><p>"Yeah," Noah said, shrugging slightly. "She did the whole 'I'm impervious to bullets' thing before she realized the agents were all using wolfsbane. Braeden called me <em>unofficially</em> a couple of days ago to let me know what happened."</p><p>Peter leaned against Noah, clearly relieved to have one more problem no longer able to bite them in the ass.</p><p>"So we're not the only ones experiencing the bleed through of memories," Halwyn said, getting them back to their other big problem, "there is a virus-like spell being cast on supernaturals in town, and we've got two ritualistic-type murders that don't quite fit the rituals as we know them."</p><p>"Three murders," Noah corrected. "The third one was even weirder than the first two. The victim was torn apart, leaving behind the sort of crime scene Victoria Argent used to leave."</p><p>Halwyn was the first to admit he didn't fully understand druids or their magic, but that sounded more like a shifter thing. "Could we be dealing with two people?"</p><p>"Possibly," Noah said, "but one of them is apparently as strong as an alpha werewolf. We weren't able to make a connection between the murders and Theo Raeken. We're pretty sure it wasn't him."</p><p>"Which brings us back to Deaton."</p><p>"Yeah," Noah said, running a hand down his face tiredly.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Derek was horrified to learn that every single non-human member of his pack—except Stiles, Halwyn, and Jordan—was infected with the power-draining spell. He'd barely noticed the headache, and if Noah hadn't pointed it out he probably wouldn't have noticed the way he kept massaging the muscle above his left eyebrow. It was disconcerting to realize that they were all doing it.</p><p>And Stiles being unaffected may have simply been because he hadn't activated his spark since the pack had been exposed.</p><p>It hadn't come into the house via Julia Baccari—she hadn't been in physical contact with any of them—but considering how easily it had spread in Eichen it may have been as simple as an accidental touch from a pedestrian on the street.</p><p>Derek had needed to quickly reassure Alec that even if he'd been infected when he'd arrived that none of them blamed him and he wouldn't be kicked out of the pack. Amelia had looked ready enough to fight the whole damn world before letting anything happen to her mate.</p><p>Yeah, if Derek had still had any doubts what those two meant to each other, they were gone now.</p><p>"Maybe I should activate my spark and see if I can track the spell back to its caster," Stiles suggested.</p><p>"No," Derek growled, not really meaning for it to sound like an order but too terrified for his mate to temper his tone. "You could be the target."</p><p>"He's right," Peter said, agreeing with him before Stiles could argue. "This spell may just be tagging every shifter and magic user as it searches for a very powerful spark."</p><p>"They're not going to be able to drain me," Stiles said, sounding more confident that his body language suggested he felt, "but I might be able to track it back to them."</p><p>"No," Derek said again. "You're not trying it."</p><p>Yeah, telling his mate what to do had never really worked, even when he'd been a skinny, smart-ass kid. For a moment Stiles seemed to be working himself into a good temper, but Noah stole the wind from his sails.</p><p>"What if this is how the hunters find us?" Noah asked, his question not really making sense to Derek—they knew quite a few hunters who had no interest in killing a stable pack—but it had a much harder impact on Stiles.</p><p>"Okay," he said, backing down. Derek reached for him and breathed a sigh of relief when Stiles let him wrap around him.</p><p>"So where do we go from here?" Camden asked.</p><p>"I don't know," Stiles admitted. "If the caster suddenly pulls all the power at the same time, I'll activate my spark to protect the pack, but I have no idea how to preempt them and still remain hidden."</p><p>"Okay," Noah said, stepping in to take charge the way he often did when Stiles and Derek were kids. "We have no idea what we're dealing with and until we do no one goes anywhere alone. Always have at least one other pack member with you any time you leave this house. Leave details on the board." He pointed to the whiteboard they'd once used to coordinate everyone's whereabouts, appointments, and various other activities when most of the kids were in high school. It would work for this too. He turned to Alec and Amelia. "Sorry, kids. Consider yourselves grounded until we figure out this mess."</p><p>Amelia nodded and Alec actually seemed relieved. Pushing the pups into the center of the pack to protect them from a threat was a pretty traditional response. It's what would have happened in his old pack, and Derek was glad to see the kid accept it.</p><p>"Same for you two," Derek said, addressing his newest betas. "Grounded."</p><p>"Because we're new?" Erica asked.</p><p>"No, because until we finish transitioning we're vulnerable," Boyd said, answering intuitively.</p><p>Derek nodded. He didn't know much about these two from the other timeline, but he had a feeling Boyd had been the beta he'd relied on for levelheaded advice. Erica was confident and sassy, Isaac, quiet and thoughtful, and Boyd was solid and dependable. The four of them would have grown into a strong pack if they'd lived long enough. Derek was sure of it.</p><p>He was also pretty sure they hadn't survived because—without the advice and support he'd gotten from Noah and Uncle Peter in this timeline—he would have made a shit alpha. He really owed the two men a huge thank you.</p><p>And he owed his magical mate for giving him a second chance at building a decent life.</p><p>He hugged the man closer and Stiles relaxed against him.</p><p>Yeah, they had a lot of things to figure out, but they'd find a way through it.</p><p>They always had and always would.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"I need to head back into the station," Dad said, approaching Derek and Stiles as the rest of the pack wandered out of the room. "Yes, Stiles."</p><p>"Okay, that's just rude. How can you answer a question before I even ask it?"</p><p>"Because I know you," Dad said with a smirk. "Yes, I realize the rules apply to me too. Yes, I realize as the human I am more—what's the word you usually use?—<em>squishy</em> than most other pack members. And yes I realize I need a bodyguard."</p><p>"Glad we got that settled," Stiles said, taking credit for his dad's way of thinking. He'd put a lot of work into that over two timelines. It was about time his dad made his own safety a priority.</p><p>"Excellent. Be ready to go in five minutes."</p><p>"Huh?"</p><p>"Think about it," Dad said, smirking. "I can't ask Jordan to hang around my office like a bodyguard without raising questions from the other deputies and the bean counters, and I can't have my husband hanging around for the same reason."</p><p>"Yeah," Stiles agreed slowly. His dad wasn't wrong.</p><p>"But my recently graduated son doing an unpaid internship—AKA following me around—won't look suspicious at all."</p><p>Stiles opened his mouth to argue, but closed it again before he could come up with the right words to argue against such a good decision. It didn't help when his mate chuckled against his back.</p><p>"Looks like your summer vacation is over."</p><p>"Don't you start on me," Stiles said, grinning widely as he turned in his mate's embrace. "I had so many plans."</p><p>"I look forward to them coming to fruition," Derek said, laughing softly before pressing a kiss to Stiles's lips as if they did it all the time. They used to, in the other timeline, and Derek's grin was so close to being the same. In so many ways he was exactly the same.</p><p>"We'll figure it out. Us, I mean. We'll figure it out?"</p><p>"We always do," Derek said, using the exact words and mannerisms of another timeline.</p><p>"Yeah," Stiles agreed, leaning in to kiss his mate. It didn't matter what timeline they were in or who had what memories, they loved each other and not even death had managed to keep them apart.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>They hadn't even made it all the way to the front door of the sheriff's station when trouble found them.</p><p>"Stiles?"</p><p>Stiles turned to see a very familiar figure jogging toward him. He smiled, ready to greet the young man enthusiastically, when he noticed something unexpected.</p><p>"I'll see you later, Dad," he said, urging his father toward the front door of the sheriff's office.</p><p>Fortunately his dad was quick on the uptake and waved good-bye as if everything was just a normal day.</p><p>"Hi, Deputy Stilinski!"</p><p>"He's the sheriff now," Stiles said, irrationally annoyed that Scott hadn't noticed that.</p><p>"Hi, Scott," Dad called, still moving away and checking the watch on his wrist. "Sorry, kid, my shift started five minutes ago. We'll catch up later."</p><p>Like fucking hell, they would. No way was an unknown werewolf getting anywhere near his dad. At least not until they were able to figure out why he was in Beacon Hills. "Peter, get someone to protect dad at the station," he said telepathically. "I'm going to find out what Scott wants."</p><p>"No one goes anywhere alone," Peter growled inside his mind. "Wait, Scott? Scott McCall?"</p><p>"One and the same," Stiles said telepathically. He switched to talking out loud. "It's good to see you, dude. What have you been up to?"</p><p>"So much," Scott said, grinning that wide, dopey smile Stiles remembered from better days in the old timeline. "Just graduated."</p><p>"Same," Stiles said, not bothering to mention he'd graduated from college the same time Scott had been finishing high school. "How's your mom?"</p><p>"Fine, I guess," Scott said, scratching his eyebrow nervously. "She works a lot, you know."</p><p>"She was always a great nurse," he said, remembering the Melissa in the old timeline.</p><p>"Oh, yeah, no she's a doctor now. Said she got tired of doctors acting like nurses knew nothing, so she went back to school and still worked and, you know, never really had time for much of anything else."</p><p>"Yeah, I know what you mean," Stiles said, pointing to himself. "Sheriff's son."</p><p>In this timeline it wasn't actually true. His dad and Peter had been careful to find a healthy balance for career, life, and family. But it did give Scott the impression they had something in common.</p><p>"Sounds like we both got screwed."</p><p>"I guess they were just trying to do the right thing. The world needs doctors and sheriffs."</p><p>"I suppose so," Scott said, sounding unconvinced. "But hey, I um… I got a part time job working at a vet clinic, and my boss has been a really great mentor. Helped me pass my SATs so I can go to college."</p><p>"Cool," Stiles said, worried he knew exactly who Scott's mentor was.</p><p>"And… something else happened. When I was working at the clinic." He rubbed the back of his neck and tried to sound confident. "I was helping an injured wolf a few months ago and it… Well it bit me."</p><p>"Ouch, sounds painful," Stiles said, waiting for the other shoe to drop.</p><p>Scott looked around, sniffed the air a couple of times, and when he seemed confident enough that the parking lot beside the sheriff's station had no one else in it, he leaned forward and whispered, "It made me a werewolf."</p><p>Stiles laughed because that's what you did when a friend told you something ridiculous.</p><p>"I can prove it," Scott said, glancing around the parking lot again before letting his sideburns grow in and his teeth poke out of his mouth. He held up his hands to show Stiles the claws.</p><p>"Wow, that is so cool," Stiles said, still playing dumb while trying to ignore the litany of instructions Peter was yelling straight into his mind. "How did you do that? Is it some kind of magic trick?"</p><p>"No magic," Scott said, seeming confused by Stiles's reaction. "Well, there might be. I don't know. I'm not sure how it all works yet. Dr. Emrell has been really helpful. Apparently he knows about some of this stuff."</p><p>"Marin? Marin Morrell?" Stiles asked, even though he knew giving away knowledge of the name was a stupid thing. Peter concurred. "Get out of my head," Stiles said telepathically;</p><p>"Not gonna happen, Alpha," Peter sent back. "Also, payback's a bitch."</p><p>Yeah, he probably deserved that. He'd used the telepathy more intrusively now that he remembered the old timeline. It also felt kind of weird to remember a time when they didn't have this ability between them.</p><p>"At least tell me you're on the way."</p><p>"We're on the way," Peter said, sounding like he was being ironic.</p><p>"How many is we?"</p><p>"Chris stayed home with the puppies."</p><p>"And the rest of you are converging on my location?"</p><p>"You're about to be invaded."</p><p>"Never been happier to hear it," Stiles said with maybe just a touch of sarcasm. Scott wasn't exactly coming off as a threat. "But I don't think it's going to be necessary."</p><p>"Marin Morrell?" Scott asked, screwing his face up as if he'd never heard the name. "No, his name is David. David Emrell. He's a vet in Springfield."</p><p>Stiles couldn't resist teasing. "Where Bart Simpson lives?"</p><p>Scott laughed. "I spent the whole drive there wondering how cartoon characters might look in real life." He chuckled some more before wiping imaginary tears of mirth from his eyes. "It's so good to see you, man. Since getting bitten I've been having the weirdest dreams. You're almost always in them."</p><p>"Come to declare your love for me?" Stiles asked, grinning more broadly at Scott's poleaxed expression.</p><p>"Nah," Scott said, shaking his head. "At least I don't think so. Never say never, I suppose."</p><p>"Glad to know I'm on the list," Stiles teased.</p><p>"Yeah, sure," Scott said, still seeming shocked by the direction of the conversation. "I'll…um get back to you on that." He glanced around the area again, apparently as useless at using his werewolf senses in this timeline as he was in the other. "I'm serious about the werewolf stuff. And in the dreams we're like really good friends. You're like the person I turn to when I need help." He laughed softly. "I know that sounds creepy and weird and all sorts of messed up, but I need help with, you know, everything and you're the only person who came to mind, the only person who would understand."</p><p>"You're a long way from home," Stiles said, starting to wonder if maybe Scott was just another one of those fated coincidences. Erica and Boyd had found their way home. Why wouldn't Scott?</p><p>"Yeah," Scott agreed. "Do you want to go to the diner and get some curly fries?"</p><p>"Sounds good," Stiles said out loud while simultaneously asking his stepdad and his mate to keep their distance, for now. They weren't happy, but they sent everyone else home and did as he asked.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>An hour later Peter was bored and annoyed and ready to tear something apart with his bare human hands.</p><p>"You don't like this guy, do you?" Derek asked.</p><p>"We crossed paths in the other timeline."</p><p>"Meaning he tried to kill you or you tried to kill him?"</p><p>"When did you get to be such a cynic?"</p><p>Derek just raised an eyebrow and waited.</p><p>"Both actually. He had a little more luck."</p><p>"Meaning he nearly killed you?"</p><p>"Meaning Stiles killed me for Scott. Well actually, you were the one to strike the fatal blow."</p><p>"What the hell?" Derek asked, clearly confused and annoyed as hell by it. "Now you're making shit up."</p><p>"I'm not," Peter said, shrugging slightly. "It was a different world. I was badly burned in the fire, abandoned by my new alpha and in a coma for six years."</p><p>"A werewolf in a coma?' Derek asked, clearly horrified by the idea. "How did you stay sane?"</p><p>"You're assuming, dear nephew, that I actually did."</p><p>"When did you wake up? How did you wake up?"</p><p>"I'm not sure how," Peter admitted, "but it was when your sister came back to Beacon Hills. She came to investigate the spirals that had started to appear all over dead animals in the preserve."</p><p>"Spirals like the ones she put on the roof of the house?"</p><p>"You know, I'd never put the two together, but yeah, those spirals."</p><p>"Who was leaving them?"</p><p>"I'd always just assumed it was me," Peter said, shrugging slightly. He didn't want to admit it but he had promised to answer any questions Derek might have regarding the old timeline. "I don't actually remember killing her, but I woke with alpha eyes and bit the kid a short time later." He didn't want to say Scott's name out loud just in case his hearing was good enough for the werewolf to notice his name being used in a conversation a couple hundred yards away from the diner where he and Stiles were catching up.</p><p>"It's more likely someone else killed her," Derek said.</p><p>"As much as I wish that were true, if it had been someone else, you would have inherited the alpha eyes."</p><p>"I don't think so," Derek said, shaking his head. "I'm starting to wonder about that. We grew up believing that the alpha willed the alpha spark to their chosen successor, but what if it's as simple and as random as just going to the nearest pack member."</p><p>Peter had no idea how to process that. Was it possible he hadn't killed Laura?</p><p>"Think about it," Derek said. "I was heading back into the house. I was closest physically to where she died."</p><p>"You weren't," Peter admitted, saying farewell to the lovely dream of not being responsible for his niece's death. "In this timeline Laura died in my arms. That is a thing I remember very clearly. I was the closest pack member."</p><p>"But I'm betting after the trauma you'd gone through in the first timeline it was the last thing you wanted. It came to me because I was the closest pack member who didn't actively <em>not</em> want it."</p><p>"You're trying hard to keep that theory alive," Peter said with a soft laugh.</p><p>"Can you prove me wrong?"</p><p>"No more than I can prove you right," Peter said.</p><p>"So it's possible that you didn't kill Laura."</p><p>"Anything's possible," Peter grouched, but he did feel a little better. It made more sense for it to have been someone else who'd killed Laura. Receiving the alpha spark had been Peter's only real evidence that his niece had died. Kate had claimed not to have killed her, but the woman had been an insane killer and a pathological liar, and she'd been trained to control her heartbeat by the asshole who'd raised her. And now that they knew the spirals had also been her idea it even made a little more sense. "Thanks, nephew."</p><p>"Any time, uncle," Derek said, nodding once before going back to listening for his mate's heartbeat.</p><p>Peter tuned back in, listening via Stiles's telepathy and yeah, the conversation was still fucking boring.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Stiles was struggling to stay awake.</p><p>Scott's idea of catching up was to talk endlessly about his own boring life. And he kept using the word "ephemeral" as if it made him sound smart.</p><p>They'd already worked their way through three plates of curly fries and a milkshake each and Stiles was feeling decidedly stuffed. And kind of nauseous. He'd been nostalgic for food from the diner in the old timeline, but it wasn't nearly as good as he remembered.</p><p>"Can I get you boys anything else?" the waitress asked.</p><p>"Stiles?"</p><p>Stiles shook his head. That was a "hell no!" to more greasy food. Eew.</p><p>Scott thanked the waitress and then asked for another milkshake. Yeah, that didn't help the revolt currently going on in Stiles's stomach. He wiped away a bead of sweat as it ran down the side of his face.</p><p>He really needed to get out of the enclosed space and breathe some fresh air.</p><p>He pulled his phone out, checked the time—had it really only been an hour? Somehow it felt way longer—and pretended to be regretful.</p><p>"Sorry, Scotty, I've got to get going. I promised my dad I'd help him today."</p><p>Scott looked so disappointed that Stiles nearly crumpled, but thankfully the nausea came back full force and he had to close his mouth and swallow hard a few times instead of talking.</p><p>"Okay," Scott said, obviously disappointed, "but I was kind of hoping to stay with you and your dad for a little while. You've got room, haven't you? It's just you and your dad in that big old house, yeah?"</p><p>It took Stiles a moment to realize Scott was talking about the house he'd lived in before his mom died.</p><p>"No, ah…" Technically they had spare rooms at the pack house, but there was no way Stiles was inviting an unknown werewolf—especially one with the potential to become a True Alpha—into the middle of his pack. "Sorry, we moved when my dad got remarried."</p><p>"Oh," Scott said, giving him those sad puppy eyes that had worked too often in the old timeline.</p><p>Stiles was running through his options. It was clear that Scott had nowhere to go and probably very little money. He was about to open his wallet and hand over his cash and the emergency pre-paid credit card when dizziness struck him. He didn't really register the fact he was falling sideways until Scott caught him.</p><p>"Dude," Scott said, helping him back into a sitting position. "You okay?"</p><p>"Peter?" Stiles called, unsure if he was using telepathy or voice or both.</p><p>"It's okay, Scott," a voice said—another familiar fucking voice—"my car's out the back."</p><p>"Hospital?" Scott asked, easily lifting Stiles into his arms.</p><p>"Yes, we'll get him some help."</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>
  <em>When is a door, not a door?</em>
</p><p>Seriously?</p><p>
  <em>Stiles, when is a door, not a door?</em>
</p><p>"Peter?" Stiles asked, using telepathy and trying to appear as if he was still unconscious. Unfortunately he'd had a lot more practice at it than he cared to remember. When his stepdad didn't answer he responded to the only voice he could hear. "Void? What's happening?"</p><p>
  <em>When is a druid, not a druid?</em>
</p><p>Stiles barely managed not to roll his eyes.</p><p>"Not helpful," he said to the nogitsune. "Can I have some details, please?"</p><p>
  <em>Darach wants Void and Stiles to be Void-and-Stiles.</em>
</p><p>"Again, not helpful," Stiles said, still calling for Peter and not getting an answer. That was probably scarier than being tied to the nemeton again. Fuck. "I already figured that part out for myself. Give me something to work with."</p><p>
  <em>Darach thinks Stiles is… human.</em>
</p><p>"Okay, now that's the sort of information I needed." And something he could definitely make work for him. "Anything else? Do you know where Scott is?"</p><p>
  <em>Befuddled.</em>
</p><p>"Scott's befuddled? Huh?"</p><p>
  <em>When is a door, not a door?</em>
</p><p>"Don't start that shit again."</p><p>
  <em>When is a door, not a door?</em>
</p><p>"Voi-oid…." No Stiles was not whining to a thousand-year-old chaos spirit. He wasn't. Seriously.</p><p>
  <em>Baby alpha sees a door that is not there.</em>
</p><p>"I don't even know how to unpack that statement."</p><p>
  <em>Baby alpha sees a door that is not there. Even now he talks to himself.</em>
</p><p>"Baby alpha? Derek's been an alpha for nearly ten years in this timeline." Which okay, yeah he could see how that might seem like a short time compared to Void's lifespan, but still…rude.</p><p>
  <em>Not your mate. Baby alpha.</em>
</p><p>The only other alpha he knew was…</p><p>"Scott? Scott's the baby alpha?" Oh god, not again. "He's a True Alpha?"</p><p>Void made a noise that wasn't hard to interpret.</p><p>"Dude, did you just snort?"</p><p>The breathless, wheezy snickering that followed was kind of hilarious and also fucking contagious, and Stiles had to bite down hard on the instinct to join in. He was still trying to fool his captor into believing he was still unconscious.</p><p>"I know you're awake, Mr. Stilinski."</p><p>Yeah, okay, big fail.</p><p>"Yes, Dr. Deaton," he said, channeling Peter's inner smart-ass. "How can I help you today?"</p><p>"You should be careful, Mr. Stilinski. That smart mouth of yours could get you into trouble one day."</p><p>"And being tied to a tree"—no need to let Deaton know that Stiles knew about the nemeton—"is not your idea of trouble?"</p><p>"On the contrary," Deaton said, moving into Stiles's line of sight, "trouble is about to be your middle name."</p><p>Whoa, it was the waitress at the diner. But with Deaton's voice. Yeah, that was just disturbing. The woman grinned and sort of melted into Alan Deaton before morphing into a third person that Stiles recognized as Marin Morrell from the old timeline.</p><p>"Dude," Stiles said with feeling, "that is just so lame. I realize you're the villain and all but could you maybe try not to be so cliché. I mean…like, seriously? Glamors? That's just sad."</p><p>Deaton seemed very annoyed by Stiles's attitude. Score one for the good guys!</p><p>"Not glamors," Deaton said with his voice and a smirk on Marin Morrell's face. Yeah, Stiles was going to need so much therapy. "And not the villains. We are balance. Three faces, three sides, three—"</p><p>"Three?" Stiles interrupted. "That doesn't make any sense. Balance is only two—good and evil, right and wrong, ying and yang, up and down, high and—"</p><p>"We are three dimensional."</p><p>"Keep telling yourself that."</p><p>Void snorted, apparently agreeing with Stiles, and that just made Stiles snort with him. It quickly grew into an outright giggle that ended when Deaton threw a candle at his head. Fortunately the guy couldn't throw to save his fucking life.</p><p>"You, Mr. Stilinski," Deaton-Morrell-Unidentified-Waitress-Lady said in a weird three-tone voice, "are about to learn the dangers of being a human who runs with wolves."</p><p>"Ouchies?" Stiles asked, smiling at the way the Darach winced.</p><p>Apparently they wanted their victims to be properly cowed before sacrificing them to their whims. Fuck. The ritual sacrifices. Was this Deaton-like person behind them too?</p><p>"Yo, Deets," Stiles called, enjoying the way Deaton winced at the nickname, "are you the one behind those murders my dad's been investigating?"</p><p>Deaton smirked.</p><p>"Okay, gonna take that as a yes," Stiles said. "The first two I get. You know run-of-the-mill stuff." He silently apologized to the victims for his characterization of their heinous murders, but if it helped trip Deaton into revealing his secrets it would at least help them get justice. "But the last one? What the hell was that about? The guy was torn to shreds."</p><p>"The werewolf," Deaton said with a smug smile. "Imagine how pleased we were to realize he was an alpha. Saved us so much trouble."</p><p>"I don't understand," Stiles said, really worried that he actually did.</p><p>"It takes so much effort to steal an alpha spark and in the end it still needs to be willingly given."</p><p>Derek in the last timeline. Shit, he'd been manipulated into giving up his spark to save his sister and mere hours later Scott had miraculously become a True Alpha.</p><p>Fuck.</p><p>"The sacrifices were a grab for power," Stiles surmised, "but once you got your hands on an alpha werewolf you just manipulated Scott into killing him."</p><p>"Very good, Mr. Stilinski," Deaton said, moving around the nemeton and lighting candles that seemed to have been evenly spaced while Stiles was unconscious. "Maybe you're not as stupid as we believed." He glanced up at the darkening sky. "It won't save you though."</p><p>"Save me from what?"</p><p>"From never-ending torment."</p><p>
  <em>I think they mean me.</em>
</p><p>"Yeah, Void," Stiles said silently. "I think they really do."</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Chris," Noah said, glad to finally get someone to answer their damn phone, "I think we may have a problem."</p><p>"Understatement," Chris exclaimed. "Everyone is asleep. And I mean asleep, asleep."</p><p>"Huh?"</p><p>"They're sleeping. Every one of the pack members who was infected by that virus, or whatever it was, is asleep. It's not a coma. They're not unconscious. They're just sleeping. I managed to wake Ally and Isaac but they both went back to sleep the moment I turned my back. The same with Aiden and Ethan."</p><p>"Danny?"</p><p>"He's awake. He's trying to contact Halwyn, but so far no luck."</p><p>"Probably because Camden usually answers his phone for him."</p><p>"Yeah, that's my theory too. What about Jordan?"</p><p>Noah was a little bit embarrassed to realize Jordan was the <em>next</em> on his list to call, not the first as he probably should have been considering the circumstances. The guy was a great deputy and a really nice guy, but he wasn't the first person Noah thought of when he was trying to raise a paranormal army to respond to an emergency.</p><p>"I'll call him in a minute," he said. "It's possible we have a more pressing problem though. I can't find Stiles."</p><p>"He was with Scott McCall?"</p><p>"Yeah, they came to the diner," Noah said, looking around the area and trying to stay calm. "I'm standing out front right now. Peter called earlier to say their conversation was putting him to sleep, but at the time I don't think he meant it literally."</p><p>"Can you see Derek's car?"</p><p>"Not yet."</p><p>Peter had called to tell him they could see the sheriff's station and were still close enough to the diner for Derek to overhear the conversation between Scott and Stiles. Noah really should have asked exactly where that was, but at the time they were treating Scott's arrival as a bit of a false alarm. They knew he was a werewolf now and memories of the old timeline would have been bleeding through. At that stage it had seemed almost inevitable that he'd seek out Stiles.</p><p>They'd let their guard down.</p><p>And the enormity of that mistake scared the hell out of him.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Derek woke with a startled shout.</p><p>"The fuck?" Peter asked sleepily.</p><p>"Peter, we fell asleep." Derek leaned over to shake his uncle. "Peter, wake up!"</p><p>"Five more minutes," he mumbled, closing his eyes again.</p><p>"Shit," Derek growled, tuning his hearing back into the diner half a block away. "I can't hear them. Peter you have to wake up!"</p><p>But his uncle frowned irritably and quickly fell back asleep.</p><p>Derek shook him again and was about ready to drag him from the car when he saw Noah. He was running toward them and he looked terrified.</p><p>"Stiles is gone," he said, pulling Derek's door open and urging him to climb out. "And the pack is asleep."</p><p>"All of them?"</p><p>"Every shifter. Chris is on his way to Eichen. Natalie is with the kids. Jordan is on his way here. That's it. The rest of them are sleeping." He ran around to the other side of the car to check his husband. "Peter included."</p><p>"I was too," Derek admitted. "I'm not sure what woke me."</p><p>"Stiles, maybe?"</p><p>"Maybe," Derek said, stifling a yawn and trying to keep himself awake. "It might have been better to wake Peter. At least he'd be able to communicate with him."</p><p>"I suspect you're only awake because you're the alpha."</p><p>"Yeah, I'm the alpha," he said, self-deprecatingly. Noah gave him a strange look but shook his head instead of saying anything. "So where do we start?</p><p>"With what we know," Noah said, clearly falling back on his training. "Scott McCall is a werewolf and he arrives in town the same day that the pack is rendered helpless."</p><p>"And we've already established that anyone who was paranormal in both timelines is getting bleed-through memories from the old one."</p><p>"Which includes Deaton and Marin and maybe a few others we haven't run into yet," Noah muttered. "And Scott was working with Alan Deaton in the first timeline when he was bitten."</p><p>"And with a David Emrell—a vet in Springfield—in this one."</p><p>"Yeah, that's too much of a coincidence for my liking."</p><p>"Mine too," Derek agreed. "By itself it seemed innocuous enough but with the viral spell activating at the same time, yeah, it's way too much of a coincidence."</p><p>Noah nodded. "Okay, so we've got Scott McCall… Potential True Alpha or actual True Alpha?"</p><p>"I didn't get close enough to notice," Derek admitted, annoyed at himself now for following his mate's wishes. "Stiles asked me to keep my distance and I guess I just assumed Stiles could tell an alpha from a beta."</p><p>"Normally he can," Noah said frowning. "Unless Scott's being drained as well?"</p><p>"He could be their first victim," Derek said with a shrug. "And it would explain Stiles not noticing."</p><p>Noah frowned. "Assuming Stiles had been abducted by Deaton and the spell is draining everyone's energy at the same time... What's the end goal?" He rubbed a hand down his face, clearly agitated. "Deaton is all about balance and we've had years of peace."</p><p>"So is he trying to destabilize the pack or kill us? Either way brings chaos."</p><p>"Chaos," Noah repeated. "Void?"</p><p>"The guy in the jar?" Derek asked. He'd been meaning to get more details on that problem, but the last few days had been insane.</p><p>"Void is a nogitsune, trapped in a jar, and hidden inside the nemeton. In the old timeline he possessed Stiles after a magically created earthquake and between the two of them they nearly brought this town to its knees."</p><p>"I'm going to assume that with Stiles's intelligence and knowledge in this timeline he would be even more dangerous."</p><p>"Yeah, except Stiles is also stronger now. The night Illiandra tried to kill him"—and holy fuck how was that was only a few days ago?—"Stiles warned Void against trying it. The nogitsune lost last time before Stiles even realized he had magical abilities. Void wouldn't stand a chance now."</p><p>"As long as Stiles can activate his spark."</p><p>"Yeah," Noah agreed. "Deaton is unlikely to know as much as Illiandra knew."</p><p>"How did she find out?" They'd placed "on buttons" on Stiles's middle finger and thumb for whenever he ever found himself bound by a captor. Yeah, that was a "when" and never an "if" scenario.</p><p>"Aiden," Noah said, giving him a sad smile. "He was depressed and disillusioned when Lydia chose to go to Hawaii. Illiandra was being a 'good friend' and trying to distract him by asking all about the pack. He only realized he told her after she attacked Stiles."</p><p>"Explains why he went after Danny so aggressively." Noah gave him a worried look, but Derek shook his head. "Danny sorted it out, and I'm assuming Aiden confessed to Stiles since you know what happened."</p><p>"Yeah," Noah said, sighing with relief when Jordan's car pulled up next to them.</p><p>Jordan nodded in greeting and got straight to the point. "I think I have a way to wake Peter."</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Stiles, when is a doo— Sorry, bad habit. </em>
</p><p>Stiles laughed. How the fuck was this his life?</p><p>
  <em>Crazy darach plans to make the earth shake.</em>
</p><p>"Yeah, I figured that's what he had in mind."</p><p>
  <em>Wants to crack my jar.</em>
</p><p>"There's a sentence I never expected to hear."</p><p>
  <em>Is mate coming to rescue?</em>
</p><p>"Maybe not this time."</p><p>
  <em>You'll track me if I escape?</em>
</p><p>"Yup."</p><p>
  <em>Can I have the crazy darach?</em>
</p><p>"Dude," Stiles said, turning away from temptation. It'd probably be hilarious to watch Deaton-Morrell-Unidentified-Waitress-Lady try to deal with yet another personality trying to take over, but it was also not a move his dad would approve of. Then again Peter would totally love it. Yeah, it was probably a really good thing that he had two dads in this timeline. Ah. Balance. How was that for irony? "Sorry, Void. I can't just go handing over people to chaos spirits. It wouldn't be right."</p><p>
  <em>Fun, though.</em>
</p><p>"You're not wrong," Stiles said, giggling again at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.</p><p>
  <em>Darach plans to draw power from the infected.</em>
</p><p>"You've seen this spell before?"</p><p>
  <em>Ancient and forgotten.</em>
</p><p>"Not so forgotten, apparently. Will it kill the infected?"</p><p>
  <em>Only if done wrong.</em>
</p><p>"What are my chances Deaton-Morrell-Unidentified-Waitress-Lady is doing it right?"</p><p>
  <em>Very small.</em>
</p><p>"Fucking fabulous."</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter 18</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>"I am not letting you burn my husband."</p><p>"Sheriff, it'll wake him up long enough to locate Stiles. I assure you it will heal."</p><p>"No," Noah said, swallowing around the terror lodged firmly in his throat.</p><p>"It'll only be a small burn," Jordan assured him, "and it'll heal quickly."</p><p>"I said no. Find another way."</p><p>"Noah?" Derek asked. "Not even for Stiles?"</p><p>"Not even for Stiles," he admitted quietly, almost overwhelmed by that knowledge. If it had been anything else, anything at all, Noah would have considered it. But burning? No, he would never let Peter feel that fear ever again, not even for a moment.</p><p>Derek seemed shocked but he must have realized Noah wouldn't budge on his decision because he turned to Jordan and suggested, "Will a break work?"</p><p>He shook his head. "Chris tried that on Allison. No luck."</p><p>Yeah, hunter logic. Chris was probably very lucky it hadn't worked. Allison didn't like being woken in ordinary ways. There was no telling what she might have done if she'd thought she was being attacked.</p><p>"No luck because it didn't hurt enough or because it healed too quickly."</p><p>Jordan shrugged. "Possibly both."</p><p>"Alpha injuries last longer," Derek suggested.</p><p>"Okay," Noah said, "start small and be discreet. The last thing I need is a video trending online of the sheriff's husband being tortured by his nephew."</p><p>Derek nodded, a grim smile flashing across his face before he turned to the task at hand. "You might want to move away," he said. "If Peter reacts badly…"</p><p>"Just do it, son," Noah said, refusing to let go of his husband's hand.</p><p>Derek gave him a sad smile and snapped Peter's little finger. The sound was fucking loud.</p><p>But it didn't wake him up.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Sun is falling.</em>
</p><p>"Thank you, Mr. Obvious."</p><p>
  <em>Moon is rising.</em>
</p><p>"If this is another one of your riddles…"</p><p>Void snickered. Yeah that was an unpleasant sound.</p><p>
  <em>Spell will start soon.</em>
</p><p>"Yeah, I figured that's what the candles and the moonlight were for."</p><p>
  <em>Why have you not rescued yourself yet?</em>
</p><p>"Because I want to know how close my pack is."</p><p>
  <em>Hourglass approaches empty.</em>
</p><p>"Yes, I am very aware that time is running out."</p><p>"Stiles?"</p><p>"Peter, thank fuck. I'm on the nemeton. Tell everyone to stay back. I need at least a mile in every direction."</p><p>"A mile?" Peter asked sleepily. "Derek said he's coming to you."</p><p>"No, you need to stop him."</p><p>Peter was obviously struggling to stay awake, but Stiles could hear him arguing with Derek and Dad.</p><p>"Okay," Peter said, his telepathic words slurring. "How long do you need."</p><p>"Ten minutes at least," Stiles said. "I'll signal when it's safe."</p><p>"Great, I'm looking forward to having two broken arms."</p><p>It took a moment to parse what Peter was saying. That must be how they'd managed to wake him, but despite the pain he'd mumbled Stiles's message and already fallen back asleep by the time he'd finished the words.</p><p>"Okay, Void, show time," Stiles said, waiting for Deaton to start his chanting in seriously bad Latin. Honestly, what were they teaching in druid school these days? Plus he was using Unidentified-waitress-lady's voice and that was just so weird. So fucking weird.</p><p>"Hey, Deets," he called, smirking again as Deaton winced. He morphed into his Unidentified-waitress-lady's shape and continued butchering Latin in Unidentified-waitress-lady's voice. "What's the weird words for?'</p><p>"It's Latin, you uneducated moron," Unidentified-waitress-lady said in a derogatory tone. Why were evil people so rude?</p><p>"So are you gonna like turn me into a frog or something?"</p><p>"Or something," Unidentified-waitress-lady said using Morrell's voice and then morphing into her shape.</p><p>"Does it have anything to do with the guy whispering riddles to me?"</p><p>Morrell used Deaton's voice to brag. "It's a nogitsune." And then morphed into Deaton's shape.</p><p>"Gotcha," Stiles whispered as he activated his spark.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>EPILOGUE</p><p> </p><p>"Mom?" Scott asked the moment he woke up.</p><p>Jordan took a step back to give Melissa room.</p><p>"Hey, kiddo," she said, running her hand over Scott's shoulder. "How are you feeling?"</p><p>"Weird," he said, smacking his lips together as if his mouth was really dry. Jordan grabbed the cup beside the bed and handed it to Melissa. She fed a few ice chips into her son's mouth. "So weird."</p><p>"That'd be the painkillers you're on, honey."</p><p>"Why?"</p><p>"Why are you on painkillers?" Melissa asked. She didn't really wait for him to answer. "You broke your leg. Don't you remember?"</p><p>"It'll heal," Scott mumbled.</p><p>"Yes, it will," Melissa said, laughing softly. "It was a messy break but the surgery went well. It should heal okay, but you'll probably need a lot of physiotherapy. "</p><p>"What?" Scott mumbled. "No, I don't need physio or surgery. I'll heal without it. Dr. Emrell said so."</p><p>"Aw, honey," Melissa said, giving Jordan a sad look. "He really did a number on you, didn't he?" She reached for Scott's hand and squeezed tightly. "Dr. Emrell's real name is Alan Deaton and he is really, really sick. He's been suffering delusions for many years now." She glanced at the door as Noah walked in.</p><p>"He told me I'm a werewolf," Scott said, sounding half asleep but <em>all</em> confused.</p><p>"He's delusional, Scott," Melissa repeated very firmly. "And I am so sorry I didn't realize how much influence he had over you." She looked over at Noah. He nodded just once and she relaxed considerably. "But he can't hurt you now. As soon as the doctor releases you we're heading home to Springfield and we're not looking back."</p><p>"But I want to be a werewolf," Scott said in a whiny voice that he'd probably used as a young child.</p><p>Melissa laughed softly. "Don't we all?"</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"We are balance," Deaton said fervently. "We three are—"</p><p>"Balance is only two," the prison guard said, glancing at Braeden as if to confirm what he was saying. "You know good and evil, right an—"</p><p>"Balance is three dimensional!"</p><p>"Whoa," the guard said, wrenching his hand away when Deaton tried to bite him.</p><p>"Mr. Deaton," Doctor Romero admonished. "You need to at least try to resist those urges. I can't have you biting the staff. If you won't accept their help you'll be transferred out of the medical wing and into solitary confinement."</p><p>"I don't need help," Deaton said, gnashing his teeth a few times as if he planned to bite anything that might get close enough. Thank heavens they'd used the type of heavy restraints Braeden usually tried to avoid, but this guy was seriously criminally insane. "And I'm a Doctor. My name is <em>Doctor</em> Deaton."</p><p>"Actually Mr. Deaton," Doctor Romero said calmly, "you're not a doctor. You never have been. You're not even a qualified veterinarian." That had been a surprising piece of information to come to light in Braeden's preliminary investigation. The guy had set up and run veterinarian clinics in two small towns in two separate states and no one had noticed he wasn't actually qualified. "And once you accept that thinking you're a doctor is part of your delusions it will be much easier for you to understand that you are just one person."</p><p>"No, I still hear them. They're here. They're still talking. I am bal—<em>We</em> are balance."</p><p>"Is there a chance you'll be increasing his medication?" the guard asked. "It's going to be a very long night otherwise."</p><p>"I'll see what I can do," Doctor Romero said with a nod. He signaled for another guard and between the two of them they managed to guide Alan Deaton through the security door without anyone getting bitten. Braeden didn't like their chances of avoiding it though. Deaton seemed awfully determined and he was clearly insane. She'd heard of split-personality disorders before, but she'd never seen one up close and personal. Of course this one had the added bonus of being a callous murderer as well.</p><p>"Thanks for your help with the escort, Agent."</p><p>"I wish I could say anytime, but this one was kind of personal."</p><p>"He's the serial killer who tied his victims to trees facing the water?"</p><p>"Yeah, the son of a friend was nearly his fourth victim in Beacon Hills."</p><p>"Shit, I'm hoping by nearly you mean…"</p><p>"Yeah," Braeden said, "he survived. The kid is pretty resourceful, but I would like very much to avoid anyone having to live through that again."</p><p>"I can understand that," Doctor Romero said. "It's now a federal case?"</p><p>"Yeah, we've identified several other murders with the same methods. We're checking details now, but it's a fairly safe bet since Deaton was a resident in the area at the time."</p><p>The doctor nodded. "It sounds like he's going to be a resident for a good long while."</p><p>She nodded. The ranting about balance and murders being necessary to maintain it were not subjects she was eager to revisit. "And if he happens to recover sufficiently to stand trial, I'll be there to make sure he spends the rest of his life in prison."</p><p>The doctor nodded.</p><p>"Can't say I blame you. Thanks again for the escort, Agent. I hope your day improves."</p><p>"Me too," Braeden mumbled as she and her partner turned and headed back to their FBI transport van.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>They were all in the meeting room. The entire pack had gathered to make sure Stiles was okay. Even the minions and Malia had joined them, and yes, Stiles was going to ask why Malia seemed to be hugging Jordan really, really hard as soon as he had a moment.</p><p>"So they're both human now?" Peter asked, calling Stiles's attention back to the reason for their meeting and away from the various romantic partnerships and triads that had formed within their pack.</p><p>"Yup," Stiles said, still a little lightheaded from the events of last night. He'd never tried willing so many things to happen in a single moment, but it had worked out rather nicely. Well except for the shockwave that had rushed through Beacon Hills setting off every single alarm in the entire town. Yeah, Dad was not impressed.</p><p>But he was also pretty glad Stiles was still alive, so hey... more balance!</p><p>"And Scott McCall is going back to Springfield?" Allison asked, clearly suppressing a shudder as she said the guy's name. Knowing what he knew now of the old timeline, Stiles wasn't all that surprised Allison considered Scott a particularly creepy stalker in this one. He'd always figured if Scott hadn't been a newly turned werewolf the day they'd met, Allison probably wouldn't have noticed him. Scott would have been as devoted to Allison as Stiles had once been to Lydia, but without the respect and common-sense restraint. It would have been a rather disturbing combination.</p><p>Jordan nodded. "I checked in with Scott's mother again this morning. She's organizing to have him transferred into her care—she's a doctor and well able to look after a patient with a broken leg—and then they're getting 'the hell out this messed-up town.' Her words, not mine."</p><p>"I thought you said Scott was a werewolf? Why would he need surgery?"</p><p>"He <em>was</em> a werewolf," Derek said, stressing the "was."</p><p>Nearly every eye in the room turned in Stiles's direction.</p><p>He held up his hands in a sort of claim to innocence.</p><p>"That was mostly just a happy accident." He shrugged, trying to figure out a way to explain the unplanned side-effect. "I needed to stop the draining spell Deaton was doing on most of the paranormal population from here to LA. We're talking thousands of people, all asleep and possibly dying at the same time."</p><p>"That's going to end up on the conspiracy websites for sure," Aiden said with a wince.</p><p>"I'm hoping most paranormals were out of the public eye by the time the full moon was rising," Lydia said thoughtfully. "A handful of people falling asleep on the job is easier to explain than an entire pack collapsing in a supermarket."</p><p>"Danny, can you keep an eye on the Internet sites for me, please?"</p><p>"Sure thing, Alpha," Danny said to Derek, grinning and obviously very pleased to be treated as a real part of the pack. Now that he, Ethan, and Jackson had accepted their feelings for each other, it was even more important for Danny to know he was pack, not pack-adjacent like the rest of his family.</p><p>"So Deaton is sucking the life from every paranormal he managed to infect with his virus-like spell…" Jackson said, clearly trying to get Stiles back on track.</p><p>"So I had a plan on how to cut the connection but I also wanted to trap Deaton in his Deaton shape and voice."</p><p>"Whoa," Camden said, "his Deaton shape? He was a shapeshifter?"</p><p>Stiles shrugged. "I'm not sure exactly what he was," he said. "He had three shapes that I saw—Deaton, a gorgeous French-Canadian woman, and a middle-aged waitress that was probably the woman you found at the clinic that day we broke the spell Deaton had placed on Derek."</p><p>The man behind him shuddered at the reminder. Stiles pressed Derek's arm harder against his middle, encouraging his mate to hug him tighter, reminding him that he wasn't alone, that they'd work through their traumas together.</p><p>"As he was butchering Latin—honestly Lydia I wish you'd been there to smack him for his lousy pronunciation—he was cycling through the three body shapes and voices and I figured trapping him into his Deaton shape and voice would make it easier to match the evidence from the murder scenes. But I also needed to strip his magic from him and I usually need physical contact to do that so I had to get creative."</p><p>Derek chuckled, apparently remembering how creative Stiles had been last night when they'd fallen into bed. Yeah, they still had things to sort out but sex was never going to be a problem for them. In fact they could probably just move past most problems by fucking like bunnies until the problems went away.</p><p>And no, that wasn't being a responsible adult, but as Void had pointed out last night, being irresponsible was much more fun.</p><p>"Geez, Stilinski," Jackson said, throwing a pillow at his head. "Whatever you're thinking, stop it. You're stinking up the room."</p><p>Derek knocked the pillow away long before it got anywhere near Stiles, but he chuckled that deep warm sound and Stiles nearly melted.</p><p>"Anyway," Stiles said, eager now to get the story finished so he and Derek could spend some more time together healing their relationship, "I needed to send my power toward Deaton in a kind of shockwave and the easiest way to do that was to divert the energy he was stealing and send it into my spark, but I kind of underestimated how many shifters and magic users he'd targeted."</p><p>"You asked for a one mile perimeter," Derek reminded him.</p><p>"Well, yeah, I might have <em>suspected</em> it could happen, which is why I needed you all at a safe distance, but I did not expect it to be strong enough to strip an alpha werewolf of everything that made him a werewolf."</p><p>Derek squeezed him slightly harder and Stiles suspected his mate knew stripping Scott of his alpha spark had been his intention all along. The rest was just gravy. The guy could go back to his boring life in Springfield with no need to get involved in the supernatural secret that he'd never been able to keep in the old timeline.</p><p>"The shockwave hit the entire town," Peter said. "I'm assuming by the fact that we're all still ourselves that your spark dissipated the further it got from ground zero."</p><p>"Yeah," Stiles agreed with a nod. "Scott was only a couple dozen feet away, locked in a delusion. Void told me he was seeing a door that wasn't there and talking to himself."</p><p>"Void?" Chris asked.</p><p>"Oh yeah," Stiles said, smiling sheepishly. He hadn't explained that part yet either.</p><p>"A…um…"</p><p>Peter took over. "Void is a chaos spirit—a nogistune—who was locked in the nemeton sometime during The Second World War."</p><p>"Is it still there?" Chris asked, clearly freaking out. Shit, yeah, Stiles had forgotten that Chris knew all about nogitsunes in both timelines.</p><p>"No, the shockwave cracked his jar, but"—he held up a hand to hopefully stop Chris from freaking out—"it also stripped him of most of his magic too."</p><p>"Holy shit," Peter said, directly into Stiles's mind. "You stripped a thousand-year-old chaos spirit of its magic? How strong are you?"</p><p>"It was only a temporary boost," Stiles assured him. "Once the draining spell was broken I went back to normal."</p><p>"That's the story you're going with?" Peter asked, apparently having decided Stiles was avoiding the truth even though he wasn't <em>actually</em> lying.</p><p>He smirked in his stepdad's direction but didn't respond telepathically.</p><p>"So the nogitsune is free?" Chris asked, understandably fixated on that detail.</p><p>"He is," Stiles said, glancing up at the bookshelf above the door, "but he's contained and mostly pretty harmless."</p><p>The raccoon gave him a beady-eyed stare and then very deliberately raised its paw and gave Stiles <em>the middle finger</em>.</p><p>"Yeah," Stiles said. "Right back at you, Void."</p><p>"That's Void?" Allison asked. Stiles nodded and she laughed softly. "He's way too cute for a chaos spirit."</p><p>"I can't scent him," Aiden said, moving so that he was standing between the raccoon and Lydia.</p><p>"Yeah, that's him using the little bit of magic he has left. But that's it. That's all he had. He's also restricted to the preserve. The boundary runes work like mountain ash for him. He can't go under, over or around them. He's safe. He's contained. He can't infect anyone. I promise."</p><p>The raccoon used both front paws to give the whole pack the middle finger and then turned and deliberately showed them his butt.</p><p>"And, yeah, he's still kind of an asshole."</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Seven years, eight months, and three mostly peaceful days later…</em>
</p><p> </p><p>"You're late," Noah said as Peter rushed into their bedroom.</p><p>"I am not." Peter laughed and pulled his husband into his arms. "I'm right on time."</p><p>"Well you were almost late," Noah said, sighing as Peter snuggled into his embrace. "I'm glad you're home."</p><p>"Me too," Peter said, still a little overwhelmed with the idea that they no longer knew the future but so damn delighted to have his family happy and settled. Today was the day Stiles had cast a spell that had changed all of their lives for the better. They were hoping it was just a coincidence that Amelia and Alec had chosen if for their wedding day. "Is there a reason you're this nervous?"</p><p>"I just want everything to be perfect," Noah said, showing a side of him that no one else but Peter was allowed to see. Even after fourteen years of marriage to this incredible man having that privilege still left Peter feeling awed.</p><p>"It will be perfect, even if it's not," Peter said, remembering Noah saying the exact same words on their own wedding day. He leaned in to kiss his mate.</p><p>"But she's so young," Noah lamented when they finally broke apart.</p><p>"She's nearly twenty-one and you know this is just a formality."</p><p>Everyone thought Noah was under the impression that his daughter had waited for her wedding day. She'd never promised. Alec had never promised. And well they were mates and the center of each other's universe. It wasn't something they could hide from shifter noses. But Noah wasn't as oblivious as their daughter assumed. "She's still our youngest and our adorable little girl and I can live in denial if I want to."</p><p>"Yes, you can," Peter said with a happy laugh.</p><p>"I love you," Noah said grinning broadly.</p><p>"Love you too," Peter said. "Now let's go see if the bride needs anyone eviscerated. I think the flowers may have been the wrong color."</p><p>Noah laughed, kissed his husband one more time, and turned toward the rooms where nearly half the pack was helping their daughter get ready for her big day.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>"Stiles," Alec called, rushing into the garden where Derek was supervising the placement of guest chairs and enjoying the calm before the storm.</p><p>"He's in the house," Derek said, tuning his hearing into the way Stiles was babbling to their daughter as he changed her diaper.</p><p>Jessica babbled back just as vocally, growling just a tiny bit as her werewolf genes kicked in. As far as her dads were concerned she was perfect in every way. The only worrying thing about their daughter was that, according to their resident hellhounds, she also had the soft glow of a magic user. They had no idea if that was from her unusual beginnings or something more. Only time would tell.</p><p>But even that thought wasn't enough to make him regret Stiles's ability to create and grow their child using his spark. The last few months of his magical pregnancy had been the most terrifying, nerve-wracking, calamitous days of their life together and also the very best.</p><p>Especially now that Derek had more memories of a life that never happened to compare them to. They owed Stiles so much, but in the end they'd all realized that every single one of them would have done the same if they'd been able.</p><p>"I can't do my tie," Alec said anxiously, dragging Derek's attention back to him. "How the hell did I ever think this was a good idea?"</p><p>Derek laughed. "Where is everyone? I thought Aiden and Lydia were helping you get ready."</p><p>"Have you dealt with Lydia when she's organizing a party?" Alec asked as if he hadn't lived through many big pack celebrations since joining them nearly eight years ago. "It took two werewolves, a kanima and a seriously devious computer geek to distract her long enough for me to slip away."</p><p>"Next time," Derek said, reaching for the tie Alec was crumpling in his hand, "let her dress you properly before you sneak away."</p><p>"Yes, Alpha," Alec said, smiling happily as Derek fixed the tie problem with practiced hands.</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>The wedding was beautiful.</p><p>Stiles cried. Of course he did. Amelia was the adopted sister he'd adored since she was four years old. He'd read her stories and played games and done silly magic to entertain her when she was bored or sad or just in need of some "Stiles time."</p><p>And Alec was the orphaned "cousin" Derek and Stiles had officially adopted the moment the kid had agreed. He was Stiles and Derek's son in every way that mattered.</p><p>Amelia and Alec were mates and adored each other and Stiles couldn't be prouder of the kids and the pack they'd all grown up in. The day had been absolutely perfect.</p><p>
  <em>Hey, Stiles, when is a door, not a door?</em>
</p><p>"When it's—" Oh fuck!</p><p>Stiles raced toward the shed where they'd locked him away—just for a few hours so he didn't get trampled under the feet of so many guests—but it was too late. The door was <em>ajar</em> and Void was nowhere to be found.</p><p>"Void, you little shit. What are you planning?"</p><p>"Stiles?" Derek asked, grabbing Stiles as he went to run past. "What's the problem?"</p><p>"Void got out."</p><p>Derek shrugged. "Let him have some fun."</p><p>"But—"</p><p>"Everything went according to plan. The dress, the cake, the food, the music. Everything was perfect but how would we know that if there wasn't a little chaos for comparison?"</p><p>"I guess you're right," Stiles said, relaxing into his mate's embrace. The wedding was nearly over and Alec and Amelia had already left for their honeymoon. It would be fine. "I mean how much chaos can a sentient raccoon create?"</p><p>The startled screams of several non-pack guests was answer enough.</p><p>Derek laughed. "I really wish you hadn't asked that."</p><p> </p><p>~*~</p><p> </p><p>Claudia smiled as chaos, laughter, and love filled the house her husband and son had built. They'd brought together an incredible pack, a loving family, and a much happier future.</p><p>And on the very day that had started it all she could finally rest.</p><p>She let her spark drift away from her, the tiny light making a beeline for the next generation of the family she loved. Yes, Jessica Stilinski-Hale had a very bright future indeed.</p><p> </p><p>THE END</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Thank you for everyone who joined me on this crazy, far-longer-than-I-intended journey. Cookies for everyone!</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>